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BEING A GOOD TEACHER 



BY 

HENRY C. KREBS 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SOMERSET COUNTY 

NEW JERSEY 

AUTHOR OF "reaching THE CHILDREN" 



HINDS, HAYDEN & ELDREDGE, Inc. 
PHILADELPHIA NEW YORK CHICAGO 







Copyright, 1918, by Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, Inc. 



APR 29 1918 



©Gi.A494754 



p 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword 5 

1 The Ideal and the Practical 7 

2 Getting Pupils to Study 16 

3 The Health of the Children . 24 

4 The Ten Talent Pupil 35 

5 Making Pupils Thorough 45 

6 *'To Understand All is to Pardon AH" 57 

7 The Teacher and the School Board 66 

8 The Teacher and the Superintendent 74 

9 Reports to Parents 81 

10 Dealing with Individual Parents 89 

~h 11 The Teacher's Temper 97- 

12 Why Teachers Fail 105 

13 Getting a Better Position 114 

14 Vacations 125 

15 Summer Schools 135 

16 The Teacher's Saturdays and Sundays 141 

17 Reading the Bible in the School 149 



FOREWORD 

The purpose of this book is impHed in its title — the 
teacher's own development and advancement. Toward 
this object it discusses, besides certain elements which 
enter into good teaching, some of the characteristics 
of the good teacher; special emphasis being laid upon 
the solution of many of the diflSculties and the mastery 
(of many of the situations which confront every teacher 
day by day. The author will feel repaid if he succeeds 
in helping his readers along the sometimes difficult 
road toward the^ desired goal. 

H. C. K. 
March, 1918. 



BEING A GOOD TEACHER 

CHAPTER 1 
THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 

Miss Agnes Repplier, our brilliant American 
essayist, in discussing present political conditions 
in this country, closed an article in a recent num- 
ber of the Atlantic Monthly with this significant 
sentence: 

Carthage had commerce: Rome had ideals. 

We have all read of the activity and enterprise 
of the Carthaginians in the way of trade. Their 
ships dotted the Mediterranean from the remotest 
east to the pillars of Hercules and beyond. They 
established trading posts wherever there were 
products to be conveyed. They founded cities 
and subdued peoples. But, when the inevitable 
conflict with Rome came on, the Carthaginian 
empire was found to be built upon the sand. Her 
commerce was business for the mere sake of busi- 
ness. It was activity without great national 
ideals. In rivalry with the high-minded, incor- 
ruptible, stout-hearted Romans whose every act 
was based on established principles, there could 
be but one result in the end. The genius of 
7 



8 TEE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 

Hannibal could not counterbalance his country's 
national insufficiency. 

Passing from nations to individuals, the con- 
trast between the ideal and the practical is illus- 
trated in Mary and Martha of the Scriptures. 
It is also shown in a general way by the young 
man who leaves the public schools to earn money, 
contrasted with his classmate who keeps on 
through college; or by the road commissioner who 
year after year shovels gravel onto the road which 
the rain regularly washes out, compared with 
those who recognize that road-building is a 
science, and employ a competent contractor to 
lay dow^n a permanent structure. 

The "Carthaginian" teachers are those who 
have no use for books or for discussions that do 
not deal with practical devices. They are in- 
terested in such topics as *'The best method of 
teaching spelling," "How to keep order," etc. 
Such subjects as "The teacher's ideals," "Pro- 
gressive education," "The principles of teaching," 
do not attract them, because these do not deal 
with the minutiae of schoolroom routine. 

Of course there is no best method of teaching 
spelling, nor of keeping order. If there were, the 
task of teaching would be greatly lightened. In 
such matters the teacher's own personality must 
|be her guide. She will not do her best work so 



TEE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 9 

long as she remains content to lean on the per- 
sonality of another. To become strong as a 
teacher one must evolve one's own "best meth- 
ods" — whether of teaching or of discipline. 
However, an intelligent discussion of "best 
methods" may be of the highest value, but only 
on condition that no cut-and-dried "method" is 
to be slavishly followed. 

No one will deny that commerce is important 
to any nation, or that the work of the Marthas is 
essential to the very maintenance of life. The 
study of methods in business and of domestic 
science is becoming increasingly valuable in 
modern life. The study of the very commonplace 
affairs of school routine, such as janitor's work, 
the daily program and the teaching of spelling, 
is of much importance. But, unless this work is 
undertaken in the light of principles and ideals, 
it is inevitably ineffective. 

England was ever sedulous in developing com- 
merce with the whole world, and at one time be- 
lieved that her prosperity depended especially on 
the amount of trade she could develop between 
the home country and her own colonial posses- 
sions. Laws were enacted with the intention of 
developing colonial commerce, but permitting it 
with the mother country alone. The underlying 
principle of her commercial activities was self- 



10 TEE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 

aggrandizement. Under this system she lost her 
richest American colonies and risked the loyalty 
of her other possessions. Wise statesmen pres- 
ently realized the error and reversed the principle. 
Instead of making the motherland the sole bene- 
ficiary of their efforts they joined hands with the 
colonies for mutual development and prosperity. 
The result has been the establishment of the finest 
colonial system in all history. Not only has the 
commercial advancement of the colonies been 
amazing, but that of the mother country has 
been still more so; and besides, she has drawn to 
her bosom with bonds unbreakable the colonies 
whose destinies are at one with her own. 

In the old school the primary purpose of disci- 
pline was to keep the pupils quiet. This was to 
be accomplished through the use of the rod. It 
was the easiest way, and it achieved immediate 
results. It fulfilled its aim. The school was quiet. 
Was this the "best method" of keeping order? 
It has now fallen into disuse. It is still desirable 
to have the pupils quiet; but the method of secur- 
ing quiet by tactful management — getting the 
pupils interested in their desk work, and keeping 
them interested — has proved far more successful, 
and in many ways, than the old method of control 
through fear. 

The most practical thing in the world is a cor- 



THE IDEAL AND TEE PRACTICAL 11 

rect ideal. It is "the real as it should be." The 
more we study life as it should be, the better we 
shall live. The more we study children as they 
should be, the more capable shall we be to lead 
them toward the highest standards. The more 
we study ideal school conditions the more capable 
shall we be to better the existing situations. 
Without ideals there are no standards of measure- 
ment or of comparison. There may be activity, 
but it will be horizontal, so to speak, not vertical. 
Such activity leads nowhere. Its products are not 
permanent. No one who lacks the upward reach 
can accomplish great things which shall be both 
great and enduring. 

But we are told that idealists are unpractical. 
Ridicule is heaped upon "mere theorists." While 
they are wandering blissfully through the realms 
of imagination others must provide their bread 
and butter. However, if that be a fault it should 
not be laid to their idealism. The trouble may 
be that they lack the other qualities necessary to 
an efficient life. General Grant had little appre- 
ciation of art in any form; however, that was not 
because he had practical military ability, but in 
spite of it. Yet General Grant was a man of high 
ideals in his special sphere. 

The Scripture is forever true that if we seek 
first the kingdom of God and its righteousness 



12 TEE IDEAL AND TEE PRACTICAL 

all other things will be added unto us. By devot- 
ing ourselves solely to seeking food and raiment 
we run the risk not only of missing the kingdom 
of God but also of failing to gain that which we 
are seeking. So the teacher who fails to heed the 
higher things of education, confining her activities 
to the mere drudgery of daily routine is in danger 
of failing not only in the higher development of 
her pupils but also in putting them through their 
ordinary tasks successfully. 

Instinctively we tire of activities that lead no- 
where. The story is told of an experiment made 
on a poor man who had been out of work. He 
was promised good wages, and under good work- 
ing conditions was set to work to move a heap of 
stones from one part of a field to another. He 
entered with enthusiasm upon the task. When 
it had been accomplished, he was ordered to move 
the stones all back to the original place. This 
done, he was told to move them again as in the 
first instance; and then back again, as before. 
Ere long this fruitless work became unendurable, 
and he gave up the job, saying he would rather 
starve. 

What we need in our schools is enthusiasm, 
with ambition — worthy motives, lofty aims, high 
endeavors. With these, or even some of these, 
will not good work be inevitable? Likewise a good 



THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 13 

school? The methods good. The pupils attentive. 
The progress sure and great. Such, then, should 
be the main objects of our study and striving. 
Rome had her ideals; commerce followed. Car- 
thage had commerce; but lacking ideals, she fell. 

The late James J. Hill, president of the North- 
ern Pacific Railroad, once stopped at a small 
station on the line and inquired for the agent. 
He found the latter so engaged in looking after 
small matters that he had no time to talk, even 
to the president of the railroad. Mr. Hill, how- 
ever, found opportunity to give the agent this 
valuable advice: "Young man, I had rather find 
you in your office with your feet on your desk, 
planning how to advance the interests of this 
company than see you running about the platform 
attending to details that belong to subordinates." 

It has been well said that *'a sure sign that one 
is an idle man is to complain of being busy." 
The man with nose continually on the grindstone 
would certainly be busy, but could not see much 
when in that position. If one man spends ten 
hours on a task that another does in five, the 
chances are that the latter's product is of a better 
quality than the former's. The teacher who is so 
"busy" that she has not time for teachers' meet- 
ings or summer schools, nor for recreation and 
social life, is sapping her own life, besides inviting 



14 THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL 

professional failure. For the sake of present 
smaller results she invests, as it were, the very- 
capital which, properly employed, would later 
earn also health, friendships, and professional 
advancement. 

A teacher of a certain one-room school lived 
with her parents near the school. Not having to 
pay board, she laid aside from year to year nearly 
the whole of her salary. She did not dress well, 
she spent no money for professional improvement. 
She was bent on laying up money in the savings 
bank. Naturally, she never advanced beyond that 
little school. Being so isolated she developed 
personal peculiarities which alone would have 
debarred her from a higher position. Moreover, 
the quality of her work so deteriorated that she 
was merely tolerated by the school board — ^be- 
cause they disliked to remove one who had taught 
so long in the district. She saved her money, but 
at what a forfeit! And what an offense against 
the children who during all the years of her in- 
cumbency her mediocrity held back. 

Another girl began teaching at the age of six- 
teen without even a high school education. She 
was ambitious and did much private study; but 
because of home conditions it was not till after 
sixteen years that she was free to go to the normal 
school from which she graduated in due course. 



TEE IDEAL AND TEE PRACTICAL 15 

She specialized in the education of defectives, 
became an authority in her field, and commanded 
a liberal salary. These two instances from real 
life show how the wise investment of money in 
pursuit of higher things is at once the better 
financial policy, while also the better policy in 
terms of usefulness and advancement. 

The teacher without ideals seldom gets joy out 
of her work. To her it is a mere shift, a temporary 
livelihood; its activities a hardship, its duties dis- 
agreeable tasks done under compulsion. By and 
by her temper asserts itself. She becomes hard 
and bitter. She cannot conceal the lines in her 
face. She cares less and less for the esthetic side 
of life; and becomes dissatisfied, discouraged, and 
in all respects unhappy. 

Contrast with this the alert, inspiring teacher, 
constantly trying new plans, learning new charac- 
teristics of her pupils, watching their growth and 
ministering to it; taking courses of study, culti- 
vating the arts, making herself socially eflScient 
by dressing well, frequenting good society, and 
enjoying life. Who would not spend one's days 
in this happy way rather than in the monotonous, 
driven, existence of the teacher whose sole desire 
is to be "practical"? To he something, to stand 
for something, one must have the stimulus and 
the sustaining power of great ideals. 



CHAPTER 2 
GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 

One test of a teacher is her ability to get pupils 
to study through proper motives. A teacher who 
fails in this test will have difficulty hard to sur- 
mount. Hence the fundamental importance of 
the subject of this chapter. 

In the old time school the fear of the rod was 
the accepted incentive to study. In most schools 
of to-day recourse is had to other means. Books 
on school management contain long lists of natural 
and artificial incentives, some proper, others im- 
proper. In many primary classrooms may be seen 
gift stars, for example, awarded for excellencies 
such as attendance, punctuality, neatness, skill 
in spelling, etc. It seems hardly necessary to go 
into a discussion of these devices. The books 
give the arguments for and against, mostly 
against. Suffice it to say a good teacher has at 
command so many unquestioned and unquestion- 
able natural methods for interesting the pupils 
in their studies and keeping them busy, that arti- 
ficial devices are needless. It is the universal ex- 
perience that the teacher at school or the pro- 
fessor at college who is full of enthusiasm inspires 
16 



GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 17 

the students, and enlists their interest, so that 
they study for sheer love of study. The teacher 
or professor who lapses into lifelessness may be 
sure that he will gain neither the attention nor 
interest of the class. The teacher in love with 
her subject will present it attractively, thus solv- 
ing the whole problem. 

There are, however, in every school certain 
pupils who are exceptions to the rule. They may 
have so little taste for certain subjects that their 
interest may not be aroused by ordinary means. 
Such pupils must be made a special study. It is 
an advantage to get these pupils into a favorable, 
and even sanguine, attitude toward such subjects, 
by helping them to do well in their recitations. 
To every boy and girl there is something exhilar- 
ating about facing a class and reciting so well as 
to gain the commendation of the teacher. 

Let us suppose a boy is listless over the history. 
Let the teacher tell him privately that she will 
call on him the next day for a topic not found in 
the lesson, but one which he by timely preparation 
may recite creditably. When she calls on him, 
the next day, he will probably be able to relate 
some facts that will interest the rest of the class 
because new to them. His own interest will be 
enhanced, his confidence in himself increased, and 
his whole attitude changed. The one topic well 



18 GETTING PUPILS TO STUDF 

learned will be the basis for further progress, and 
the one success the augury of others. If a girl 
is discouraged in arithmetic, let the teacher give 
her the chance to recite upon problems she has 
successfully solved, not call upon her for those 
she cannot explain. Instead of mortification and 
discouragement, she will presently experience a 
new feeling — of confidence, and courage, and hope, 
and proper pride; and she, like many another 
girl similarly led, may become almost a "shark" 
at mathematics! If pupils who dislike a subject 
are never given an opportunity to recite credit- 
ably, their interest in it is not likely to be aroused. 
Perhaps one of the star pupils in drawing has 
no liking for history or geography. In that case 
the obvious method of approach is through his 
aptitude in drawing. In both the subjects the 
blackboard should be in constant use for illustrat- 
ing the topics discussed; and the pupil who can 
draw well may do most of the work on the board. 
Should he be called upon, for example, to prepare 
to draw at the board for the class the pictures of 
colonial furniture, or of agricultural implements, 
or of forts and weapons of war, or what not, he 
must necessarily familiarize himself with them; 
and the discussions by the class that naturally 
grow out of the pictured objects will almost surely 
stir within him an interest in history. Besides, 



GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 19 

his drawings will add greatly to the value of the 
recitation to the whole class. 

If one of the pupils delights in declamation, the 
teacher may interest him in history by assigning 
patriotic selections to be recited. Historical 
novels and geographical readers also form a good 
starting point for pupils slow in these subjects. 

The foregoing illustrate some of the special 
methods of approach through which the interest 
of a pupil in one subject may be connected with 
some other subject to which he has been indif- 
ferent. It remains to be said that the teacher 
must take more pains to explain such subjects 
than those subjects require which the pupils like. 
She must make things clear. Her constant prac- 
tice must be to bring to class interesting illustra- 
tive material, and to connect it with the subject 
on the one hand and with the pupils' tastes on 
the other. 

Another way to get pupils to study is by arous- 
ing their ambition. It is a well-known fact that 
boys and girls will go to any amount of trouble 
to secure a coveted object. There was once a 
farmer's boy ten years old who was exceedingly 
fond of Fourth-of-July firecrackers. To this boy 
a pack of firecrackers had been a rarity. The 
day before the Fourth one of the field hands told 
the boy that if he would bring fresh drinking 



20 GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 

water for himself and the other hands during the 
afternoon in the fields, a pack of firecrackers 
would be his reward on the following day. The 
boy was bound to win that prize. The distance 
from the house to the fields was about a half-mile. 
The boy filled his gallon carrier with water and 
hastened with it to the fields, arriving there some 
fifteen minutes after the men had begun to work. 
They praised his diligence, and he ran home 
again, to re-fill the carrier and make a second 
rapid trip. Back and forth he hurried that entire 
hot afternoon, seldom resting between times more 
than five minutes. He did not know that the 
farm hands were having a joke at his expense. 
Early the next day one of them went to town, 
and on returning was met by the eager boy who 
asked for his firecrackers. "They didn't have 
any more," was the unfeeling reply, and the boy 
suffered a cruel disappointment. Of course that 
was the joke. But presently the man, who really 
was a kind-hearted person, found in his pockets 
two packs of the coveted firecrackers, and the 
boy's delight may be imagined. 

There is, perhaps, no better way of arousing the 
pupils' interest in study than by lessons in biog- 
raphy that show the results springing from ap- 
plication to books. The story of young Lincoln, 
trite to us, is ever fresh to the youthful mind. 



GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 21 

The example of Daniel Webster is much to the 
point. The early achievements of Alexander 
Hamilton, the application to study of Jefferson, 
Madison, John Quincy Adams, Longfellow, Lowell, 
Emerson, Phillips Brooks, and many other Amer- 
icans will stimulate the boys. The story of Mary 
Lyon, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frances E. Willard 
and Alice Freeman Palmer will appeal to the 
girls. When once a pupil has formed the purpose 
to emulate these noble characters, there will be 
no need for further urging. 

Thus far our attention has been directed toward 
stimulating study in books. There are studies, of 
course, not wholly confined to books. Industrial 
work and manual training are of great value, re- 
quiring close application, and appealing to some 
pupils for whom books make slight appeal. Those 
who have a natural bent for craft work need no 
special incentive. In other cases the teacher may 
point out the remarkable products of intensive 
farming. Those who do not care for farming may 
perhaps take kindly to landscape gardening, or 
to floriculture. Illustrated magazines will stimu- 
late discussion, and are replete with suggestions 
for practical work. 

In general, the most potent force that influences 
pupils to study is the spirit and the example of 
the teacher. If she be well read in books, and 



22 GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 

well versed in manual work; if she be a keen ob- 
server of nature and of human nature, and of a 
cheerful and helpful temper, her pupils will catch 
the spirit from her. 

A teacher of plane geometry in a certain high 
school captured the eager interest of his class by 
departing from the old, stereotyped method of 
demonstration. He devised practical applica- 
tions of the theorems. Many of the recitations 
were conducted on the playgrounds and in the 
neighborhood, with actual measurements. The 
principles of geometry were also applied to cer- 
tain problems of physics and of astronomy. The 
pupils discerned the relation between geometry 
and some of the affairs of life. The study was not 
merely theoretical, but practical. That the lively 
interest of his pupils marked the work and the 
recitations of this teacher's classes was but a 
matter of course. 

We are here forced to admit that teaching of 
this type requires a preparation that not all 
teachers can command. The geometry teacher 
just referred to was a normal school graduate, a 
college graduate, and an indefatigable summer 
school student. His scholarship, was unusual. 
No mere tyro is capable of treating geometry on 
broad lines. But it should be taught on broad 
lines; and those who do not have the equipment 



GETTING PUPILS TO STUDY 23 

to use such methods should spare no effort to get 
it. If teaching is as serious a business as, say, 
the practice of medicine, the teacher needs as 
thorough preparation for her work as does the 
physician for his. If many lives have been lost 
because physicians had not learned how properly 
to diagnose and treat certain diseases, equally 
true is it that many children have grown up in 
ignorance because we teachers have not known 
how to guide them. If our schools have lacked 
animation, it was because our own spirit has 
lacked "pep." One cannot impart the vital 
spark in whose own soul there is no fire. To which 
the would-be successful teacher must add knowl- 
edge broad and deep, along with the fruits of 
experience — fruits harvested by others for his 
benefit, as well as those garnered by his own toil. 



CHAPTER 3 
THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

One of the characteristics of good teaching as 
opposed to poor teaching is its breadth — its scope. 
The good teacher has a wide vision. To para- 
phrase the old Latin dictum, everything relating 
to children is of interest to her. She teaches 
pupils, not lessons. The latter are the media, the 
instruments of her influence, but they are not the 
end. There are some things of importance be- 
sides the attainment of hundred per cent class 
records. 

In view of the great emphasis placed in recent 
years on the physical basis of life there is no 
excuse for anyone who considers herself compe- 
tent to undertake the responsibility of teaching 
to be ignorant of the importance of physical 
training and of correct methods of improving the 
bodies of the children. That teacher belongs to 
the past who considers the merely mental as her 
entire sphere of endeavor. All right-thinking 
parents would prefer to have one hour per day 
less of study for their children if necessary to 
gain even fifteen minutes of physical exercises 
rather than that the daily program should ignore 
24 



THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 25 

this fundamental requirement for an eflBcient 
life. 

If our schools were wisely conducted, each year 
would show not only proper intellectual progress 
but also marked physical development. It is, 
on the contrary, a matter of common observation 
that in some schools, especially those above the 
grammar grades, each year discloses a decrease 
in the students' vitality ; and when the high school 
pupil, particularly the high school girl, steps for- 
ward to receive her graduation diploma, we see 
an emaciated, anemic form where we should see 
buoyancy, vigor, health. The girl who graduated 
at the head of her class, so overworked that she 
was unable to read her commencement essay, had 
achieved a dubious success. Unless the teacher, 
at the end of the school year, shall have kept her 
pupils up to the right level of health her laurels 
will have been dimmed accordingly even though 
the pupils seem perfect in their studies. 

What increases the teacher's responsibility is 
the fact that while the body is growing, certain 
defects can be corrected which later are irreme- 
diable. Nobody ever became a great musical 
performer who did not begin work on an instru- 
ment early in life. The would-be violinist or 
pianist who first begins practice at the age of 
twenty-one can never attain the suppleness of 



26 THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

touch that early training would have made pos- 
sible. If the teacher fails to attend to certain of 
the defects in the children's bodies, they are likely 
to persist through life, or at least to yield only 
to prolonged treatment, and in any event retard 
their mental and spiritual growth. 

Teachers who are alive to the importance of 
physical training should realize that both intelli- 
gence and knowledge are necessary for directing 
this work. Routine calisthenic exercises are not 
a panacea for bodily defects. Indeed, they are 
worth very little except to stimulate the circula- 
tion and furnish a diversion from study. It is 
just as impossible for the teacher to develop the 
body without knowing how as it is to teach read- 
ing without knowing how. Practically all our 
normal and other training schools require at least 
one year's study of psychology for prospective 
teachers; but very few require an equal amount 
of work in physical training. Yet as between the 
two the chances are that a course in physical 
training for teachers would be of more value to 
the children than a course in psychology. 

A teacher versed in physical training will have 
acquired a large part of schoolroom psychology. 
She will not tolerate impure air in the schoolroom, 
and this will go far to solve the psychological 
problems of stupidity, listlessness and disorder. 



TEE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 27 

She will teach the pupils to sit properly and to 
breathe properly — two other factors on the road 
to manliness and womanliness. We say of a 
young man who is over-confident that he is 
*' chesty." Give "chest" to one who is under- 
confident and that moral defect will disappear. 

There is a difference between physical instruc- 
tion and physical training. The latter implies 
drill — habit-formation. Instruction without such 
drill is of slight avail. So little of our talking 
carries over into life that much talk is much waste 
of time. Children may be able to explain clearly 
the necessity for bathing — how the pores must 
be kept open for the elimination of bodily waste, 
how impurities spread disease, etc. ; but how much 
better off are the children for this knowledge if 
they do not bathe regularly and frequently? Un- 
fortunately our school buildings are not equipped 
as yet with baths. But with such equipment as 
every school may furnish there are many drills 
which provide ample habit-forming physical 
training. 

Proper breathing is one of the fundamentals of 
bodily development and good health. The lungs 
inhale oxygen and exhale waste matter. More- 
over, with the oxygen nitrogen is inhaled. This 
latter element is too often under-valued. At one 
time it was considered merely a harmless gas 



28 TBE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

serving to dilute the oxygen. But when we con- 
sider that compounds of nitrogen enter into the 
most powerful explosives we may well believe 
that the nitrogen we inhale at every breath per- 
forms more than a merely negative part. 

Very few people breathe so as to utilize the 
full lung capacity. In many persons one-half the 
lung cells are never active. This invites a condition 
favorable to tuberculosis. By breathing lazily, 
so to speak, one sacrifices many of the benefits 
that spring from complete lung action. If the 
lung capacity is developed, there will be a corre- 
sponding increase in chest expansion. This is the 
point of approach in inducing pupils to practice 
the necessary exercises. The teacher with tape 
line should take chest measurements of each 
pupil — one with passive chest, one with inflated 
chest. These measurements should be taken in 
two ways — under the arms, and over the arms 
as they hang at the sides. Thus there will be four 
measurements for each child. These should be 
recorded on paper. Every two weeks thereafter 
similar measurements should be taken, and the 
figures recorded. In this way the progress, if 
any, may be noted. It is probable that all pupils 
will take an interest in chest development, and 
will be eager to watch their improvement from 
time to time. They will vie with each other as 



TEE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 29 

in a game, seeing who can make the greatest gain 
in a given time. It is not improbable that a gain 
of two inches can be made the first month, and 
two inches more by the end of the year. This 
would be a great asset in the future health of any 
youth. 

For this exercise have the pupils stand with 
arms at sides, feet together; inhale by means of 
short breaths until the lungs are full. Exhale. 
Repeat five times. At first five or six breaths 
will seem to fill the lungs; but in time ten, fifteen, 
or even twenty short breaths can be taken before 
the lungs are full. At first there should be no 
straining; but after a month an extra breath may 
without harm be attempted after the lung expan- 
sion seems to have reached the maximum. Of 
course the windows should be open during the 
exercise; and pupils should be encouraged to 
practice it outdoors also. In due time every air 
cell in the lungs will be brought into action. The 
greatest possible quantity of oxygen and nitrogen 
will reach the very places where their functions 
are performed. The entire system will be ex- 
hilarated because of the improved circulation and 
purification of the blood, and these exercises will 
prove to have been of paramount value in the 
development of health and strength. For further 
details the teacher is referred to the books of 



30 THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

recognized authorities on physical training. The 
methods of presenting this matter must be such 
as to awaken interest and encourage eniulation. 
The fun element should be present. Some of 
these exercises may be exhibited at the school 
entertainments. The resourceful teacher will 
have little trouble in conducting the work so as 
to render it a perennial pleasure both to herself 
and to her pupils. The returns from her efforts 
will be manifold. 

The wise teacher will give proper attention to 
the care of the children's eyes. On dark days 
the window shades should all be raised to the top. 
On other days all the shades to the left of the 
pupils should always be raised to the top unless 
the direct rays of the sun forbid. Old buildings 
often do not have sufficient window space, which 
should be equal to one-fifth of the floor space. 
New buildings generally have the proper propor- 
tion; and yet in many schools the teachers every 
day shut out one-half the light by lowering the 
shades to the middle of the windows. If the 
children have just half as much light as they 
should have, not only will their eyesight be en- 
dangered, and possibly their health, but the qual- 
ity and quantity of their work will be diminished. 

Attention should be given to the care of the 
teeth. If physiology is not a prescribed part of 



TEE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 31 

the course of study, the teacher should at least 
teach the value of mastication, which requires 
good teeth. Then show how particles of food 
lodge between the teeth for hours or even days 
unless removed by a tooth brush. These particles 
may decay and develop poisons which by and by 
injure the teeth, and even find their way into the 
body and become a prime cause of disease. It is 
now believed by physicians that many of the 
diseases of the stomach are occasioned by poor 
teeth. The tooth-brush habit should be estab- 
lished, encouraged by exercises in the correct way 
of brushing the teeth. Already some school clubs 
exist, one rule of which is that every member shall 
use the tooth brush twice a day at the least. 

One of the habits difficult to establish in chil- 
dren, especially in rural districts, is that of daily 
bathing. In many rural homes bathing is re- 
garded as a fad, and as such is derided. In many 
of the older houses there are no bathroom facil- 
ities and no warm dressing rooms, the lack of 
which makes bathing troublesome. Here again 
physiology must be enlisted to the extent at least 
of explaining the importance of open pores. The 
next step is to induce some kind of bathing, even 
if only a "sponge" of the whole body before going 
to bed — in itself a step forward in cleanliness. 
By and by a cold scrub in the morning may be 



32 TEE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

secured. A pitcher of water, a basin, and a rough 
towel are the requirements — ^and five minutes of 
time. Naturally this program should begin in 
warm weather. Pupils who bathe daily may be 
given advanced standing in the health club. 

Much has been said in criticism of improper 
posture among pupils in school. Its harmfulness 
in causing round shoulders and spinal curvature 
is unquestioned. But too often the pupil is 
blamed for incorrect position when tlie fault is 
with the relative position of the seat and desk. In 
the majority of schools the seats are too far away 
from the desks, compelling the pupil to sit on the 
front edge of the seat when writing, and to bend 
over at the same time. He is most uncomfortable 
at all times, and falls into awkward positions to 
rest his tired muscles. 

The desk should be so close to the pupil's body 
that when he sits erect, with his shoulders against 
the back of the seat, he will be in proper writing 
position. The distance between the back of the 
seat and the front of the desk should be nine 
inches for average primary pupils and thirteen 
for average high school pupils. Of course the 
proper distance must be adjusted for each child 
according to his physique, and not according to 
grade or age. 

How often, too, in a room that has single ad- 



TEE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 33 

justable seats and desks are they all too low! For 
instance, in one room containing more than forty 
seats, all were uniformly eight inches from the 
floor, though some of the pupils were fourteen 
years old! They curled themselves up as best 
they could; but so indifferent were those in au- 
thority that for a whole year no change was made 
in the adjustment of this furniture — a dereliction 
that seems incredible in a modern community; 
yet this was an actual case in a town school with 
a good reputation. 

In a rural school the teacher can remedy im- 
proper seating through the services of her older 
boys. A screw driver and a gimlet can readily 
be borrowed, and the boys will be glad to do the 
work. To bemoan the unhygienic condition of 
the seating and to do nothing to correct it argues 
a helplessness that does not bespeak a resourceful 
teacher. The capable teacher is emphatically one 
who translates wish into action, who brings things 
to pass, who gets things done. 

Other hygienic matters should be approached 
as before suggested. Good air in the schoolroom, 
open windows in the home day and night, outdoor 
and indoor play and games, proper sleep and rest, 
all need the teacher's attention. Of course in all 
these matters the teacher must be the examplar. 
It were poor policy to ask the pupils to take a cold 



34 THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN 

morning scrub but not do likewise one's self. It 
has been said that the best way to teach upright 
carriage is by example — walk erectly. The same 
is true of other fields of physical development. 
The teacher should not merely point the way, but 
should lead the way. By no other course will 
she attain practical results in the health of the 
children. 



CHAPTER 4 
THE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

In nearly all schoolrooms some pupils are ex- 
ceptionally dull, and others exceptionally bright. 
More attention is now given to former than in 
the old days. Special classes for subnormal pupils 
are compulsory in some states. In no state is 
legal provision made for the supernormal. And 
yet, who will render the greater service to the 
state and to the country, the subnormal or the 
supernormal.'^ 

To which group of pupils does the average 
teacher give most time and strength, the bright 
or the dull? Some teachers say, "Never mind 
the bright pupils, they will take care of them- 
selves. It is the slow pupils who need the most 
help." The most help — to what end.? To attain 
an artificial passing standard, which, if of any 
value at all, is designed for the pupils of normal 
capacities, not those who are above or below the 
normal. In other words, by this plan we neglect 
the pupils who are the most promising, and favor 
those who are the least promising. The farmer 
who would let his good fields lie neglected but 
would work industriously the unproductive soil 
§5 



36 THE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

would himself be classified as subnormal. The 
mining company that would let its rich mines lie 
idle but work the barren ones would quickly go 
into bankruptcy. The fisherman who would whip 
the troutless streams and avoid the promising 
pools would carry home an empty basket. The 
lover of horses who would let his thoroughbreds 
disport themselves at will but would train his 
hacks would never win a speed record. In these 
and practically all other lines of activity the 
practice is to develop that which has the most 
promise, the material that has the best quality, 
the stock with the finest strain. 

It is admitted at once that all children are 
human beings, not to be treated as mines, or 
fields, or horses. Nature's method of the survival 
of the fittest is superseded in human life by the 
purpose of fitting as many as possible to survive. 
Nevertheless, the loss to the state through the 
neglect of bright children is much greater than 
the saving through the care of the dull children. 
It is the bright children who grow up to be 
leaders, persons whose influence shapes the course 
of events, while the subnormal are at best merely 
followers. It would seem a proper contention 
that every child in a room has a right to an equal 
portion of the teacher's time and effort. No 
parent has a right to ask for more; but he has the 



TEE TEN TALENT PUPIL 37 

right to demand that his child shall not be neg- 
lected because he is bright. 

In the nature of the case, the ten talent pupil 
needs treatment different from that accorded to 
the one talent pupil. They are opposites in every 
respect. What is proper for one is usually im- 
proper for the other. The dull pupil must have 
problems explained to him many times, and in 
most elementary form. This process is not only 
unnecessary in the case of the bright pupil, but 
is harmful, because it tends to retard his mental 
quickness. The dull pupil can work few problems 
while the bright pupil works many. The one 
can get but a few ideas in history while the other 
gets many. In brief, it is evident that uniform 
treatment for both classes of pupils is sure to be 
wrong for the one, and it may be for both. 

The bright pupil is apt to show a predominance 
of the mental over the physical. Hence particular 
care must be taken that he does not overwork, 
and that he takes sufficient outdoor exercise. 
Every effort should be made to interest him in 
sports, not only for the sake of the intellectual 
diversion but for the purpose of building up a 
physique to match his mind. 

The bright pupil deserves unusual privileges in 
promotion. He can do the work of eight grades 
in seven, six, or even five years, if given suitable 



38 TEE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

opportunities. As long as he does not overwork, 
he can skip grades every second or third year. 
"But," you say, "How can he go from the fifth 
grade to the seventh without having had any of 
the work of the sixth.^" Well, he can. Give him 
the chance and he will prove it. Seventh grade 
work properly done implies a constant review of 
sixth grade, and in this review he will get all he 
needs for the seventh grade. We are not dealing 
with an average pupil, but with an exceptional 
pupil. He is not amenable to ordinary rules. He 
is able to do what others cannot do. * A good plan 
for the rest of the class is not a good one for him. 
Hence the usual reasoning does not hold in his case. 
Care must be taken that this pupil does not 
receive excessive praise. Why is he bright? Is 
it because of any merit or achievement of his 
own.?^ Surely not. It is because he has been 
richly endowed. He has received native gifts 
from his ancestors. Probably he does not study 
more than others in the class whose work is poor; 
but with his natural quickness of perception and 
of thought he is able to produce unusual results. 
To praise and pet this boy for his achievements is 
often to spoil him, make him vain, cause him to 
cherish undue self-appreciation. Of course teacher 
and pupils will recognize his superior ability; but 
they will be careful not to express any rapture 



THE TEN TALENT PUPIL 39 

on the subject if his best welfare is to be served. 
Let the encouragement be given to the pupils 
most in need of it. 

The ten talent pupil should study his subjects 
more broadly than his classmates. The small 
amount of information contained in any textbook 
is not proportionate to his ability. He should be 
given supplementary books to read, references to 
look up, additional investigations to make. This 
will help him and the class. It is very important 
that this pupil gain an advanced education. If 
his people are poor, the teacher should advise 
with them as to ways and means to make high 
school and college possible. Sometimes older 
brothers or sisters can help, as in the case of 
Daniel Webster. The boy can have recourse to 
self-help, as many are doing who are working 
their way through college. Some men of means 
are willing to lend money to deserving students. 
Some institutions have funds for the help of 
students. In practically every case a way may 
be found. The teacher can do no better service 
than to secure the higher education of her talented 
pupils. 

Suppose the ten talent pupil, instead of being 
a boy, is a girl. This is as likely as not to be the 
case. Is there any difference to be shown? Only 
this, that the girl probably needs more inform^- 



40 THE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

tion on higher education than does the boy. He 
has the well-beaten paths of law, medicine, theol- 
ogy, and engineering before him. The girl is 
likely to know of no vocation other than teaching. 
Catalogues containing particulars as to nursing, 
secretarial and library work, social service, 
domestic science, and other branches open to 
women should also be explained to her. The 
sooner she can decide on the line of work she 
wishes to pursue, the easier it will be to provide 
for the necessary preparation. 

The other day a young man said, "I was bound 
out to a farmer until eighteen years old. My at- 
tendance at school averaged only one-third of the 
year because the farmer was not well and I had to 
stay out of school to work. I was in the eighth 
grade three years and would not have tried to 
graduate from it if my teacher had not encouraged 
me to attempt the examinations. I passed. Then 
I worked my way through high school. Next I 
gained a college scholarship by competitive ex- 
amination. I am now a junior at college. I 
work all summer to earn money, and at the col- 
lege during the term. In this way I am going 
through. I love chemistry, am specializing in it, 
and expect to take it up for my life work." The 
teacher of this little rural school did a service to 
the world in encouraging this boy. 



TEE TEN TALENT PUPIL 41 

It is usually true that bright pupils are ambi- 
tious. They feel within themselves a certain 
power which arouses aspirations and a desire for 
intellectual advancement. But occasionally one 
finds a ten talent pupil who is disposed to bury 
his fortune as did the one talent man of the 
parable. He is indolent, careless, and averse to 
effort. The work of the teacher in such cases is 
to wake him out of his lethargy. To do this she 
must acquaint herself with his tastes and desires. 
If he is interested in history, biography, or stories, 
the teacher must see that he has books on the 
subject of his choice. 

For instance, there are very few boys to whom 
the story of Napoleon Bonaparte does not appeal. 
His career is perhaps the most spectacular in all 
history, because unlike Alexander he was not the 
son of a king, but a poor boy who rose to greatness 
strictly on merit — his own push and ability. This 
fact establishes a kinship between himself and 
nearly all the boys of any school. They are 
stirred by his remarkable achievements, and are 
most likely to catch some of his spirit. A good 
life of Napoleon written for boys is therefore to 
be strongly recommended. Brooks's "A Boy of 
the First Empire" is often found in schools. A 
boy of high school age can read Abbott's "Life of 
Napoleon," which, though somewhat partial, and 



42 THE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

written over fifty years ago, is one of the most 
inspiring biographies ever published. 

Lives of Lincoln, Grant, Hamilton, Lee, Jack- 
son, Edison, Morse, and other great Americans 
are excellent for boys; but care must be taken to 
select the ones that are not too difficult. To start 
a boy on Nicolay and Hay's "Life of Lincoln," 
or Badeau's "Grant," or Henderson's "Stonewall 
Jackson," is to defeat one's purpose at the be- 
ginning, for these books are for the mature reader. 
Miss Nicolay's "Lincoln," and Garland's " Grant," 
are much better adapted for school use than the 
more elaborate biographies above mentioned. 

For girls the Life of Alice Freeman Palmer, by 
George H. Palmer, is perhaps the most inspiring 
volume extant. Here we have the story of a little 
country girl in a poor family making her way 
amid great privations, who finally won a foremost 
position among American women. Lives of Har- 
riet Beecher Stowe, Clara Barton, Florence 
Nightingale, Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, and Marion 
Harland are also available. 

Of course these volumes are good for all pupils; 
but for the special purpose of giving guidance 
and inspiration to bright pupils no agency is 
more apropos. The teacher should make these 
volumes a subject of conversation with the pupils 
>vhom she is especially trying to reach, and should 



TEE TEN TALENT PUPIL 43 

in every way endeavor to familiarize all her 
pupils with the careers of these men and women, 
especially emphasizing the qualities which made 
possible their success. 

If a pupil has no taste for general biography, 
he may show an interest in geology or entomology. 
In this case the teacher should not only encourage 
his predilection for the study of science, but should 
furnish him books on science and scientists for 
his reading. He will surely become interested in 
Faraday and Davy if he has a liking for chemis- 
try; or in Darwin and Hugh Miller if fond of 
botany and geology. Lubbock's "Ants, Bees 
and Wasps" will fascinate the young entomolo- 
gist. School libraries have not been utilized suffi- 
ciently for the advancement of the special interests 
of pupils. The teacher by addressing the State 
Librarian can secure books precisely suited to 
stimulate the special ambitions of the ambitious 
students, as well as textbooks or manuals of the 
special subjects. 

At the close of the Civil War a great patriotic 
demonstration was held in Chicago. One of the 
honored guests on the platform was Jesse R. 
Grant, the father of General Grant. He was 
called for — to speak to the audience. Almost 
overcome by the occasion he exclaimed, "Who 
am I that you should thus honor me?" The 



44 TEE TEN TALENT PUPIL 

chairman responded, to the loud applause of the 
audience, "You are the father of a great son!" 

What greater honor could one wish than to 
have been the teacher of Abraham Lincoln or 
Alice Freeman Palmer? Yet they were only the 
ten talent pupils of yesterday! Therefore, regard 
your bright pupils with great care — who knows 
but they will be the moving forces of the future? 



CHAPTER 5 

MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

Whenever and wherever a writer or lecturer on 
education wishes to show the superiority of the 
old education over the new, one of the strongest 
indictments he makes against our present educa- 
tional system is in regard to its alleged lack of 
thoroughness. And no statements will evoke 
applause more surely than those dealing with 
that phase of the subject. Here is an example: 
"Our children to-day are getting a mere smatter- 
ing of knowledge. The curriculum is so over- 
crowded that they cannot go to the root of any- 
thing. Their little minds are hurried from five 
minutes of music to five minutes of nature study, 
then a little cooking, and a little sewing, and a 
little basketry; and then dramatization, followed 
by a system of striking the air with the fists, called 
calisthenics. Before they can get their breath 
there is a fire drill, followed by playing 'Ring 
around a rosy' and similar amusements. Then 
comes paper folding and paper cutting. This 
done there is clay-modelling and sand-modelling. 
Next, the children hurry home for lunch which 
they hurry through so as to hurry back. In the 
45 



46 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

afternoon the procedure is similar, except that 
for conscience' sake the teacher asks a few ques- 
tions as to three times two and five and one, has 
the pupils go over a few silly sentences called 
reading, pronounce a few words with half the 
letters stricken out, called phonetics, has them 
write cat and dog for spelling and penmanship, 
and — school is dismissed. There is no work. It 
is all play. Everything is sugar-coated. Study 
is a lost art. The useful is banished from the 
schoolroom. Fads and frills reign supreme. No 
wonder our children learn nothing worth while. 
No wonder they never want to work. They are 
taught that education is play, that life is amuse- 
ment, and that people should be anything but 
serious. When they are through school they are 
actually unfitted for life. Give us a little more 
of the old-fashioned thoroughness, the power of 
'buckling down' to a proposition and sticking to 
it until it is solved, the willingness to learn to read 
fluently, to spell correctly, and to cipher rapidly 
and accurately." Can you not hear the applause 
of the audience as our orator wipes his brow and 
proceeds to his next point? 

There are several considerations in this well- 
worn denunciation of our schools that deserve 
attention. It may be said in the first place that 
the whole hackneyed argument is mere camou- 



MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 47 

;e. The late Colonel J. P. Sandford used to 
tell of a lecturer who regularly worked on the 
sympathies of his audience by telling of how 
when a boy he had been brutal to his teacher. "I 
struck her! I struck her! the lecturer would cry, 
in piteous accents. Col. Sandford said, "The au- 
dience cried. I cried. I saw that he was boring for 
water and I thought I'd help the stream along!" 

How easy it would be to call such a speaker to 
account. The chances are he has not been inside 
a school in ten years. If he intended to be fair, 
rather than oratorical, he should present to his 
audience a copy of a daily program from a repre- 
sentative school of to-day, to show what subjects 
are actually taught to the pupils and how much 
time is given to each subject. He would be com- 
pelled to admit that at least eighty per cent of 
the time in our best schools is given to a study of 
the so-called common branches; that the so-called 
fads and frills such as music and drawing are in 
the program not only because educators consider 
them essential but in response to the demands of 
the public. Let any school principal announce 
that these two subjects will not be taught, and 
see what a storm of protest there will be from 
the patrons of the school. 

The child of ten in the old school could read 
fluently in a book which he had memorized, but 



48 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

his sight reading was poor. To-day the same 
child is conversant with many of the good things 
in literature, and has a knowledge of many books 
along with a fluency in talking of them that the 
old school never furnished. He may not be able 
to spell so many hard words in columns as his 
predecessor, but see, in comparison, what kind 
of letter he writes. He cannot solve such arith- 
metical puzzles as "Three women had a ball of 
yarn," or "A man bought one hundred birds for 
twenty dollars;" but in practical applications of 
arithmetic and in speed and accuracy he is likely 
to be just as well grounded as his prototype. The 
fact is that the critics of to-day usually select the 
poorest pupils in our schools — the failures — and 
compare them with the brightest in the old school, 
the talents and accomplishments of these latter 
being illumined by the artificial light of a benig- 
nant recollection. In the old-time district school 
of forty pupils which the writer attended, his 
seat mate, twenty-five years old, plodded along 
in the third reader — easy reading for the ten- 
year-olds to-day! Another, of seventeen years, 
was in the first reader. A third at fifteen had not 
advanced beyond the alphabet. In the whole 
school perhaps ten were doing good work. The 
rest were scattered along the road, a goodly por- 
tion barely started beyond "the post." 



MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 49 

During the seven years the writer attended 
this school about eighty different pupils were en- 
rolled. It was considered one of the best schools 
in the township. Less than two miles away was 
a high school. Yet of these eighty pupils but 
five entered that high school, though the work, 
there, was what would now be considered merely 
advanced grammar grade work; and of these five 
only two went farther than that high school. 
For the large majority of the pupils in that rural 
school, the teaching was virtually a failure. In- 
stead of lauding the rural schools of the past for 
their few exceptional successes, we should grieve 
over the ninety-five per cent, for they did almost 
less than nothing. 

A preacher once asked at a club, "Why is it 
that the children of to-day cannot read?" He 
was met by the question, "What evidence have 
you that they cannot read? Have you visited a 
school lately to inquire into the matter?" He 
admitted that he really had no evidence but that 
his fixed impression was that nowadays pupils 
are not taught to read. " Call at your local school 
to-morrow," said his hearer, "and you will quickly 
revise your impression." 

The main purpose of this chapter is, however, 
not to justify the school of to-day, but to discuss 
the matter of thoroughness; and it may be stated 



50 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

at the outset that nobody is truly thorough in 
anything, and nobody ever was thorough in 
anything. To be thorough is to know a subject 
thoroughly — that is, to know all about it. Is 
Edison thorough in electricity? By no means. 
He confesses that he does not know what elec- 
tricity is, cannot compose a definition of it; and 
that he is only at the beginning of the knowledge 
of its possibilities. Was Isaac Newton thorough 
in science.? He himself said that he seemed to 
himself like a child gathering a few pebbles on 
the seashore while the great ocean of learning lay 
unknown beyond. Were the physicians of the 
last generation thorough.? There has been a com- 
plete revolution in medical practice since the 
announcement of the germ theory of disease. 
We cannot say that historians were thorough, or 
that business men knew all about business fifty 
years ago, or that theologians now have nothing 
to learn that is new, or that farmers were more 
thorough years ago than now, or that means of 
travel were brought to thorough perfection in the 
past generation. 

But some people expect children to understand 
fully everything they study. When a boy comes 
home and says, "We have just finished fractions," 
the critical father asks him certain questions, and 
if he becomes confused the father straightway 



MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 51 

charges the school with imparting only a smatter- 
ing of knowledge. Yet if the same father were 
asked to explain why in division of fractions the 
divisor is inverted, he would probably have an 
unhappy half-hour. Or if he were asked to tell 
what a figure is, or what a number is, or why the 
figures represent the respective numbers, he would 
be helpless. Yet presumably he is now "thor- 
ough" in arithmetic. 

The better educated the man the less positive 
and dogmatic he is in his opinions and statements, 
the less he believes himself "thorough" in any 
sphere of learning. Benjamin Franklin was one 
of the wisest of men, and yet he almost never 
made a positive assertion. The modesty of 
Charles Darwin and other great scientists is 
worthy of all emulation. The ease with which 
the neophyte in any profession settles questions 
that puzzle the most advanced members thereof 
is a subject of common amusement. It was said 
of Mr. Gladstone, probably falsely, that he 
chewed every mouthful of food at least thirty- 
two times before swallowing it. This was being 
"thorough" in mastication; and though every- 
body admits that adequate mastication is desir- 
able there are very few who are willing to chew 
until the food becomes insipid and unpala- 
table. 



52 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

There is a vice known colloquially as "the sin 
of finishing." It consists in being "thorough" 
in occupations. The farmer who harrows a plot 
of ground until there is no lump of earth larger 
than a marble is doing thorough work, but wasting 
much time and labor. The woman who washes 
her porch until the microscope can detect no 
grain of dirt does a thorough job, but she is foolish 
nevertheless. The poet Gray, on becoming a 
college professor, set out to prepare his lectures 
with minute care, so much so that at the end of 
three years he had not finished and delivered even 
one of them.' Milton and Shakespeare might 
have spent twenty years perfecting any one of 
their great works, but the world would have been 
the loser; for in all probability the play or poem 
would have lost the very thing which is Shakes- 
peare, which is Milton. 

Not only does thoroughness seem impossible of 
attainment, but it would be undesirable even if 
possible. Were it a universal law that nothing 
shall be considered finished until it is perfect 
there would soon be no professions or occupations, 
and the world would come to a standstill. 

Yet it is to this fetich of thoroughness that we 
have in the past sacrificed the best interests of 
our pupils. We tried to make them thorough in 
geography — and began by teaching them the 



MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 53 

nebular hypothesis, the movements of the heav- 
enly bodies, the causes of the changes of seasons, 
and other similar topics that are within the range 
of only college students. We taught them the 
location of every town and city in the whole 
world, and of every cape, bay, river, and moun- 
tain. In spelling we taught all the most difficult 
words in the language — test words they were 
called — with brilliant exhibitions of orthoepic 
skill. In arithmetic we drilled on such soul- 
stirring topics as arbitration of exchange, equa- 
tion of payments, the frustums of pyramids and 
cones, partial payments by the United States rule 
and the merchants' rule, stocks and bonds, and 
the yarn and bird puzzles previously mentioned. 
In history the pupils were required to know the 
date of every event, minor and major, how many 
were killed and wounded on both sides in every 
battle; and they were taught sage judgments on 
the military talents of Grant and Lee, and on 
the political wisdom of every statesman. In 
short, we imparted an enormous quantity of use- 
less information, thereby not only confusing the 
minds of the pupils but wasting an amount of 
precious time that could never be recovered. 
Furthermore, our instruction was so palpably 
unpractical as to make school work not only a 
by-word but in some instances a hissing. In our 



54 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

day every topic to be presented to our pupils 
should first be able to satisfy the current demand, 
"What is its use?" If it cannot justify itself on 
that basis, it has no justification for taking up 
the precious time of the pupils. 

There is another field in which our false con- 
ception of thoroughness has done great wrong, 
and that is the promotions. A very logical father 
once said to the teacher of his son, '*I think it 
would be a good thing if Charles were not pro- 
moted this year; because if he were to go over the 
work of his grade a second time there are a good 
many things he would understand better. No 
matter how high his standing in the various sub- 
jects, there is still much that he should learn." 

The principal of a small high school, who taught 
the senior class himself, became discouraged be- 
cause these pupils were not doing satisfactory 
work. He feared they would not acquit them- 
selves creditably at the final county examination. 
After much pondering, with considerable worri- 
ment, he announced to the class one day (it was 
in November) that he had decided not to have a 
graduating class the following June, but to take 
two years for the work. "By this plan," he ex- 
plained, "you will not be subjected to over- work. 
We can go slowly, but surely. We can be thor- 
ough; and when you do complete the course, you 



MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 55 

will graduate with credit to yourselves and to 
the school." 

*''0, excellent young man!" Shylock would have 
exclaimed had he heard this reasoning. But the 
pupils went home with heavy hearts; and the 
next morning there appeared the most dejected 
and disheartened class that the principal had ever 
seen. So much was he impressed by the psycho- 
logical effect of his announcement of the day be- 
fore that he had the wisdom to reverse himself. 
At once the class enthusiasm was restored; and at 
the end of the year one of these pupils stood high- 
est in the entire county. 

It may be granted that a child will learn some 
things by repeating the work of the grade. But 
think of the loss! His classmates of several years 
go on while he stays back. He is classified with 
pupils who were a year behind him and whom he 
looked upon as "kids." He must confront the 
derision of the pupils. He is subjected to search- 
ing questions and criticisms by his parents and 
other relatives. He is written down a dullard. 
He loses heart. He hates his school. He wants 
to go to another school or quit altogether, and 
seek a job. His attitude toward people, education 
and life is altered. Does not this seem to be a 
very high price to pay for little more thoroughness 
in last year's work, especially in view of the fact 



56 MAKING PUPILS THOROUGH 

that a good teacher will in one grade sum up 
and reinforce all the work of the preceding grade? 

In closing this chapter let us frankly admit that 
there is a portion of truth in the criticism that 
our schools do not do thorough work. We freely 
concede that our teaching is not as eiBfective as 
it should be. Many teachers are not skillful in 
the fine art of making things clear. But these 
objections held with ten-fold force against the old 
time school. 

The teacher, whatever her grade, must strive 
unceasingly for clarity with conciseness and thor- 
oughness. Yet, however aptly she may do her 
part, she can at best accomplish no more than 
their undeveloped and inexperienced minds will 
permit. But she must not refine and repeat and 
review for the mere sake of a theoretical perfec- 
tion. She must not "squeeze all the juice" out 
of school work in the attempt to get every drop; 
and when the inevitable critic charges one's pupils 
with lack of thoroughness, she may say to him 
if she has done really good work, "In what, pray, 
is anybody thorough?" 



CHAPTER 6 

"TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON 
ALL" 

Bulwer-Lytton in "Pelham" portrays a char- 
acter who on first acquaintance seems wholly bad. 
Glanville is possessed of a consuming hatred 
against John Tyrrell. He pursues him with fiend- 
ish vindictiveness, with the intention of killing 
him by starvation. He is happy when, as he be- 
lieves, he has succeeded in his purpose. Later he 
learns that Tyrrell did not die, and that he in- 
herited a peerage. At once Glanville resumes his 
malignant designs on Tyrrell's life. He sends 
Tyrrell a challenge to a duel which the latter de- 
clines. Then Glanville informs him that if he 
will not fight him in three days, he will take 
Tyrrell's life. Glanville does again pursue him 
with the intention of slaying him; but Tyrrell is 
set upon by thieves, who kill him; and Glanville 
has only the satisfaction of coming upon his dead 
body a few minutes after he is slain. Later the 
novelist raises the curtain on the wicked deeds 
of Tyrrell, setting forth how, when Glanville was 
in France gravely ill, Tyrrell persecuted Glanville's 
wife until he drove her into insanity. The reader, 
57 



58 TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 

having all the facts before him, no longer wonders 
at the hatred with which Glanville pursued Tyr- 
rell, and is ready to excuse his thirst for revenge. 

"To understand all is to pardon all" is a French 
aphorism which expresses a philosophy endorsed 
by some people, especially those who would take 
away human responsibility. It is not wholly ac- 
ceptable to most of us; but it contains a large 
element of truth for all, especially for those who 
deal with the young. 

A boy comes to school with a forbidding de- 
meanor. He is sullen, disagreeable, impolite, 
rough to the other children, and in general "a 
hard case." Some teachers begin by saying, "He 
has no excuse for these acts and attitudes"; and 
they punish him frequently. Of course this does 
little if any good. Finally they go to the home to 
call on the parents. What do they find? A 
drunken, profane, cruel and lawless father and 
mother, over whose door-sill the teacher is afraid 
to pass. Then she no longer wonders at the char- 
acter of the boy. He is but a product of his native 
soil. If he were aught else he would be a miracle. 
Then the teacher gives the boy her sympathy. 
She has learned of his heredity and environment. 
She takes the attitude of the physician — studying 
the case with great care, and prescribing such 
remedies as may effect a cure. When the boy 



TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 59 

feels that she understands and sympathizes with 
him, he will respond to her treatment. In this 
way his heart may be reached, and he may in 
time become a useful citizen. 

A certain boy of eleven was considered incor- 
rigible. Teachers would place at the blackboard 
the letter a, and ask him to name it. He would 
immediately make grimaces and contortions that 
would set the entire school laughing, and was as 
liable to say u as a. Of course he was often pun- 
ished, for the teachers were entirely satisfied that 
he was deliberately perverse. But one day a 
specialist examined this boy. He found that the 
nerves of the two eyes did not meet properly in 
the brain, as in normal people; that the only way 
in which the boy could get correct glimpses of 
objects was by making a gyratory motion of the 
head; and that instead of being perverse, he was 
making agonizing efforts to respond to the teacher's 
directions. If they had known, they would have 
pardoned all. 

In modern surgical practice there are numerous 
instances of operations on the skull of young 
people of criminal tendencies and habits that have 
completely changed the character of the individ- 
uals by removing the pressure on part of the brain. 
There are probably many other instances of so- 
called bad boys and bad girls who could be simi- 



60 TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 

larly helped if the experiment were made. Surely 
in all cases of waywardness occasioned by acci- 
dents or by malconstruction of the skull (for which 
the child is in no way responsible) there should 
be a minimum of blame and of punishment. Pa- 
tient direction there must be, but without harsh- 
ness. 

There was in a certain school a case of per- 
sistent tardiness that was the more annoying be- 
cause the boy concerned would never give any 
reasons for his tardiness. Investigation later 
developed the fact that he had no mother, but 
lived with his father and an infant sister. He 
rose at four in the morning, did some house work, 
prepared breakfast for his father and himself, 
rushed out to deliver the morning papers, re- 
turned to waken and care for his sister and wash 
the dishes; and with all these duties he could not 
always reach school on time. As a twelve-year 
old boy is naturally reticent about revealing such 
matters, he was misunderstood until the facts 
became known. 

The inability of a pupil to study, or the ten- 
dency to be irritable, may be due to a bad night 
or an empty stomach. Too many of our pupils 
come to school without breakfast. These are apt 
to become languid and to have headaches. 

A mother came to a high school principal one 



TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 61 

day and said, "I am ashamed to tell you this, 
but in justice to my daughter I want you to know 
that her father is a drinking man. When he comes 
home late at night more or less under the influence 
of liqdor, we have much trouble with him; and 
my daughter becomes so wrought up nervously 
that she has a sleepless night. I am sure that in 
school she must be excitable, and sometimes may 
be inattentive and preoccupied; so I hope you 
will attribute her peculiar actions to the trouble 
we both must endure at home, a condition which 
we cannot remedy. Please be as easy with her as 
you can, because I don't feel she is altogether to 
blame for her state of mind." 

A pupil may have inherited a violent temper, 
which sometimes may get the better of him. He 
may occasionally burst out in the schoolroom 
and cause trouble. Yet it may be that the boy 
is making a strong effort to control himself. It 
may be that out of twenty occasions on which he 
would ordinarily have become violent he restrained 
himself in nineteen. If we knew that, we should 
not be severe on account of the twentieth. To 
tame such a fiery trait as a strong temper is 
diflScult, and if it gets the upper hand only occa- 
sionally, that is a matter for congratulation 
rather than censure. 

It is said of Henry Ward Beecher that his 



62 TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 

Ghurch oJEcers once remonstrated with him for 
introducing so many funny stories in his sermons. 
"Gentlemen," was the reply, "if you only knew 
how many funny stories I keep back, you would 
think I am doing pretty well!" The boy who 
has a strong temper that sometimes gets away 
from him may be worth to the world a dozen of 
the milk-and-water boys who do not have suffi- 
cient temper ever to get into trouble. 

If we knew the effort that some pupils put 
forth on their lessons without success, we would 
be more charitable toward their failures. Take 
a pupil who stands low in his grammar class. 
He may be anxious to do better. He puts two 
hours every evening on his grammar lesson, but 
somehow he cannot master it. This in itself is 
discouraging. If in addition the teacher on the 
next day makes disparaging remarks on his recita- 
tion, with odious comparisons, or resorts to sar- 
casm or ridicule, an injustice is done the boy that 
is wholly uncalled for; and especially if he is ac- 
cused of not trying, although he is working harder 
than any other member of the class, he feels the 
injustice and may become thoroughly disheart- 
ened. 

In a certain high school the teacher of Latin 
was accustomed, at the beginning of each recita- 
tion, to ask of each pupil individually, "How long 



TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 63 

did you study this lesson?" If a student had 
devoted two hours to the lesson, yet was unable 
to translate even one sentence, you may be sure 
he was treated with all consideration, because he 
had done his best — which is, of course, all that 
anybody can do. 

Every teacher in her personal life is liable to be 
misunderstood. She may be considered parsi- 
monious when she is only denying herself in order 
to assist in the support of her home, or to help a 
brother or a sister through college. The people 
with whom she boards may consider her eccentric 
because she practices hygienic habits of living. 
They may call her "finicky" because she is re- 
fined, and sensitive to coarseness. They think 
she is exclusive because she spends some of her 
evenings in privacy, and because she does not 
make public her private affairs. Some or all of 
these criticisms are likely to be the lot of the 
teacher some time during her career. They are 
the common experience of many. Some things 
are not to be explained to the public; and if they 
were there would still be imagined cause for mis- 
interpretation and misrepresentation. 

The point is that teachers must not be deterred 
from self -development by the criticisms of ignor- 
ant or thoughtless people. The teacher must be 
the judge of what is best for herself. She realizes 



64 TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 

what she must do if she is to succeed in her pro- 
fession, and to prepare herself for an ever broad- 
ening sphere of usefulness. To Hve according to 
the dictates of those who have little knowledge of 
the intellectual world, and whose ideals are nar- 
row, is to invite disaster to one's career. The 
teacher must remain true to her own ideals. This 
does not mean that she need give offense to any- 
one. Bulwer has well said, "There is no situation 
which a little tact cannot turn to our own account: 
manage yourself well, and you may manage all the 
world." And Emerson says, "To be great is 
to be misunderstood." 

The same observations apply to our pupils. 
They, too, have their little secrets. Some are 
sensitive and shy. There are some who would 
face severe punishment rather than divulge cer- 
tain facts that other pupils would tell without 
compunction. Let us respect these reserved 
pupils, and not be too hasty in judging them ad- 
versely. They, too, are often greatly misunder- 
stood. In dealing with children as with adults, 
there is need of a broad and intelligent charity. 

A good rule in dealing with pupils is to give 
them the benefit in case of doubt. George Eliot 
took the position that "it is surely better to 
pardon too much than to condemn too much." 
Children will have a higher opinion of the teacher 



TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO PARDON ALL 65 

who makes allowances for proneness to yield to 
temptation than to one who excuses nothing, and 
who always puts a bad construction on their deeds. 
The slang expression, "Have a heart!" is an ex- 
cellent motto in school government. If adults 
are liable to err, how much more children! When 
the teacher is quite sure that she is herself a per- 
fect woman she may properly expect to find here 
and there a perfect child. But for most of us, 
the best we can do is to exercise forbearance to- 
ward the common failings of our fellows, the 
young as well as their elders. 



CHAPTER 7 

THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 

In schools not having a superintendent the 
teacher has a direct association with the board of 
education. There are several aspects of this re- 
lationship with which the teacher should familiar- 
ize herself. Otherwise she will almost certainly 
involve herself in unpleasant experiences. For 
example, when a teacher secures an appointment 
she should preserve the letter offering the appoint- 
ment. This letter usually states the name of the 
position, the length of the term, and the salary. 
Her acceptance of the offer, together with said 
letter of the board, constitutes a legal contract 
in many states, provided the board of education 
has regularly adopted rules governing teachers. 
If the board does not have such rules, the teacher 
should request a written contract. If the teacher 
has no contract, she is at the mercy of the board. 
The board can dismiss her at a minute's notice 
with or without cause. They can transfer her to 
any other grade or school under their control, 
reduce her salary, pay her nothing until the end 
of the year — in fact, do almost anything except 
the things forbidden under the criminal laws. 



THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 67 

But if the teacher has a legal contract, she is 
secure. 

It is also true that without a contract the board 
is at the mercy of the teacher, so far as leaving 
her position is concerned. She may go without 
giving notice, and the board has no redress, the 
fault lying with the board, because it neglected to 
make a contract with the teacher before the 
school term began. An experience of fourteen 
years in a certain county having 250 teachers, 
in which 24 taught each year without contracts, 
fails to reveal a single instance in which a board 
of education took an unfair advantage of a 
teacher in respect to dismissal; but on the other 
hand practically every year there were at least 
two or three instances of teachers leaving without 
notice, who could have been held, or penalized, if 
there had been contracts. This would indicate 
that boards of education are more honorable in 
their dealings with teachers in this respect than 
are teachers with boards. 

The rules of boards of education, and the, regu- 
lar contracts, usually contain a clause to the effect 
that either party to said contract may terminate 
the same by giving thirty days' notice to the 
other. Under such contract a teacher has a legal 
right to leave her position at any time during the 
year after having given the board the stipulated 



68 TBE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 

notice. But has she the moral and professional 
right to leave during the term? Here the answer 
must be emphatically in the negative. 

Suppose a teacher were to receive from her 
board on October 1st, a letter stating that her 
services would not be required after November 1st, 
giving no reason. Would she not feel that she 
had received unfair treatment? Would she not 
demand an explanation .f^ Would she consider it 
right to be deprived of her position when she 
might not be able to get another for six months? 
Would the public adjudge her a failure? Con- 
versely the same objections would obtain should 
the teacher resign on thirty days' notice. She 
would be just as unfair to the board in quitting 
during the term, even on due notice, as the board 
would be in dismissing her. She would be putting 
the board to the trouble of getting another teacher 
when good teachers are scarce. She would dis- 
locate the school work. There would be discon- 
certing "lost motion" while the new teacher was 
getting broken in. The greatest objection to a 
change of teachers during term time is the injury 
done the pupils. The teacher certainly has duties 
toward the school board and toward her superior 
oflScers, but her primary obligation is to the 
children. Their welfare is in her charge, and she 
may not lightly throw off that responsibility by 



TEE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 69 

a mere thirty-days' notice. If by quitting she 
retards their progress, she will have committed a 
wrong against the children that neither time nor 
effort might repair. The better her work the 
greater the wrong. Should she withdraw, say in 
November, she would have just then become ac- 
quainted with her charges, and have arrived at 
the psychological moment to do effective work. 
The new teacher would be at a disadvantage 
measured not by the two months only, but also 
by the two following months requisite to establish 
similar relations between teacher and class. 

Moreover, to resign one position during the 
year so as to accept another is to be the loser in 
the long run, as far as one's personal career is 
concerned. What if one should desire to return 
to the same city or county a year or two after- 
ward. Specific instances could be mentioned in 
which the superintendent wrote to such teachers : 
"You left us during the school term. We prefer 
teachers who are willing to stay the whole year." 
A certain normal graduate resigned her position 
on December 1st without a day's notice, and 
without stating a reason. Several months later 
a city superintendent wrote to her former county 
superintendent as to this teacher's qualifications 
for a position for which she had applied. The 
reply was: "This teacher left on December 1st 



70 TEE TEACHER AND TEE SCEOOL BOARD 

without a day's notice, assigned no reason for 
her action, and did not even notify me. Hence I 
decline to recommend her." 

Of course, there may be proper reasons for 
resigning during the year. Such are the impossi- 
bility of getting a suitable boarding place, sickness 
of the teacher or in her family, and other reasons 
which may be named. It is the hasty, ill-con- 
sidered resignation, because difficulties have 
arisen, or because of a chance to secure a higher 
salary elsewhere, which is unprofessional and not 
to be countenanced. Lincoln said of Grant, "He 
sticks through thick and thin. I like that kind 
of man.'* So a superintendent likes the teacher 
who "sticks," and he usually sees to it that she 
is properly rewarded. 

Another difficulty between teacher and school 
board may grow out of the case of a suspended 
pupil. Here one of two things should be done. 
Either the teacher should send the board a written 
statement of the history of the case or, what is 
much better, should present the statement in 
person at the hearing before the committee or 
before the board. It is very probable that the 
pupil and his parents would be present at such a 
hearing. But if the teacher were not there, a 
wholly misleading presentation of the case might 
be made. Boards of education sometimes decide 



TEE TEACHER AND TEE SCEOOL BOARD 71 

such cases on the testimony of pupil and parents, 
forgetting that the teacher should be called upon 
to state her version of the case. Accordingly the 
teacher, unless forbidden to be present, should 
attend the hearing, whether invited or not. 

A teacher applied for a graded school position 
in June, was elected, was formally notified, and 
wrote a letter of acceptance. This constituted a 
contract, as the board had rules governing 
teachers. In August she received an offer of a 
better position in a larger town. She at once sent 
her resignation to the employing board, stating 
no reason for her action. The secretary notified 
her that she would be expected to fulfill her con- 
tract unless she should state reasons satisfactory 
to the board. She appealed to the county super- 
intendent for advice. He informed her that the 
board was within its rights in declining to grant 
her resignation, and that her cavalier conduct 
had made an unfavorable impression. Her proper 
course would have been to explain personally to 
the secretary in advance how much it would 
mean to her to be enabled to accept the new 
offer, and to ask her release as a favor. Few 
boards under the circumstances would stand in 
the way of a teacher's advancement if her resig- 
nation were tendered even so late as four weeks 
before the opening of school. If the board had 



72 THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 

notified this teacher, say, on August 1st that her 
services would not be required, giving no reason, 
she would have felt greatly injured. A good rule 
in such cases is to keep in mind the other man's 
ox, as mentioned by ^sop. 

In another school district the board of educa- 
tion on May 1st notified several teachers that they 
had not been reappointed for the next year. One 
of these teachers, who had served in that district 
five years, came to the county superintendent for 
advice. He knew her to be an excellent teacher, 
and that her failure to be reappointed was due 
to misinformation that had come to the board 
as to her loyalty to the course of study. He ad- 
vised her to call personally on the members of the 
board, ask for the reasons for her non-election, 
and offer a frank statement of her views on the 
course of study. Few members of the board knew 
her personally. When she interviewed them they 
were impressed with her candor and her personal- 
ity; and at the next meeting of the board she was 
reappointed with votes to spare. In the event of 
trouble between the teacher and anyone else, be 
it parent, board of education or supervisor, noth- 
ing is more effective toward arriving at an un- 
derstanding than a personal interview. 

In general it may be said that a board of educa- 
tion will look askance at a teacher who is prone 



TEE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL BOARD 73 

to complain. They like one who has the favor 
of the community. Frequent complaints from 
patrons, make insecure the teacher's tenure. The 
board likes a satisfied teacher and a satisfied 
community. Let the teacher refrain from re- 
questing too insistently the purchase of everything 
she thinks the school needs. All of us in our per- 
sonal lives must get along without some things 
we should like to have, things which would per- 
haps be very beneficial to us. So with teachers 
and their classes. Not always may the board feel 
justified in burdening the community with the 
cost of some new equipment, however desirable 
it may seem to the enthusiastic young teacher. 
Let us do the best we can, but in any event, keep 
cheerful. 



CHAPTER 8 

THE TEACHER AND THE 
SUPERINTENDENT 

In towns having a superintendent the teacher 
seldom comes in contact with the members of the 
board. The matter of appointments is usually in 
the superintendent's hands. He represents the 
board. Hence the suggestions already given in 
the chapter on "The Teacher and the School 
Board" are applicable as between teacher and 
superintendent also, in so far as contracts and 
resignations are concerned. 

Besides the business relation, there is a pro- 
fessional relation that is of the utmost importance. 
The superintendent is charged with the responsi- 
bility for good schools. Hence every teacher is 
bound to be loyal to him — to administer faithfully 
the course of study, and to carry out the prescribed 
rules and regulations. She should be willing to 
co-operate for the good of the school even if asked 
to do things not definitely prescribed in her duties. 
The superintendent must every day do many 
things not nominated in the bond; and the good 
teacher will not be less complaisant. 

For instance: In a certain graded school one of 
74 



TEE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 75 

the teachers was asked by the principal to step 
out of her room to oversee the entrance of pupils 
three times per day. She failed frequently to be 
at her post, and when spoken to by the principal 
became indignant. This feeling led to other acts 
of insubordination. The result was that although 
a normal graduate of considerable teaching abil- 
ity, she lost her position by the unanimous vote 
of the board. 

Superintendents like teachers who are punctual. 
They should be on hand in the morning at the 
appointed time. Their school registers and re- 
ports should be in the office as requested. They 
should dismiss their classes promptly. They 
should not be late for teachers' meetings. In 
other words, they should be business-like. In 
many cases the superintendent's report is based 
on the sum of all the teachers' reports. Hence 
one tardy teacher may interfere very seriously 
with the work of the superintendent. 

Superintendents like teachers who are frank and 
truthful. The superintendent who does not is 
exceptional. Conversely, good teachers do not 
care to work in a system in which truthful criti- 
cism is not welcome. Therefore, when the books 
assigned to her class are unsuitable, or the topics 
in the course of study are too difficult for the 
class, the teacher should take the earliest oppor- 



7G THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 

tunity to state the case in private to her superin- 
tendent. Of course she must be faithful to his 
decision; but if he directs her to continue in work 
that is beyond the class he alone is responsible 
for the results. She is responsible for her best 
efforts to teach the lessons effectively. 

A superintendent likes self-reliant teachers. If 
all petty cases of disorder were brought to him 
to settle he would have time for little else. The 
teacher, so far as she can, must save him from 
annoyance. She must have the courage to deal 
with the ordinary mischiefs, and the knowledge 
requisite to carry out the course of study. In 
short, she must manage to run her room smoothly. 
Not to keep running to the superintendent is best 
for herself and her pupils, and is best for the 
school as a whole. 

It is, however, very important that difficult 
cases be discussed with the superintendent before 
they have gone too far. Often he can give helpful 
advice. He may have known the pupil longer 
than the teacher has, and be able to suggest treat- 
ment based on that knowledge. At any rate, if 
the case should require drastic action by the 
superintendent, it were well that he have full 
knowledge of it from its very beginning. 

A difficult situation for a superintendent arises 
when a teacher lays down an ultimatum to her 



THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 77 

class or to individual pupils. For instance, the 
persistent disobedience of a girl may lead her to 
send the girl from the room and to declare: "You 
shall not enter my room again until you have 
apologized to me before the class and promised 
to do better." The culprit may tell her parents 
that she has been expelled from school. The 
parents ordinarily would bring her before the 
superintendent and ask for an explanation, and 
he would summon the teacher and hear her state- 
ment of the case. But what can he do to remedy 
the difficulty? The teacher has definitely com- 
mitted herself by publicly stating the terms on 
which the girl may return to the class. The par- 
ents may declare that to apologize in public would 
needlessly humiliate the daughter, and threaten to 
carry the case before the board of education unless 
some other form of discipline be employed. The 
superintendent may believe the teacher's action 
to have been too hasty. Yet if he should send 
the girl back to the room without having apol- 
ogized the prestige of the teacher would be shat- 
tered. This is by no means a theoretical situation. 
It is a situation which frequently occurs in schools. 
The simple truth is that a teacher should not 
issue an ultimatum. Presumably she would be 
in an irritated frame of mind when dismissing the 
pupil from the room, and in danger of too harsh 



78 THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 

a judgment. Merely to dismiss the pupil from 
the class would be sufficient for the moment. At 
a convenient time later she should bring the case 
before the superintendent, who would determine 
the proper procedure. If an apology were to be 
exacted, the teacher and the' superintendent 
would be at one, even though the responsibility 
were his. But to be compelled to defend a teacher 
whom he deems only half right, and who might 
have taken a more moderate course, is a predica- 
ment difficult indeed. In fact, a superintendent 
would be justified in announcing at the beginning 
of the school year, that any teacher who should 
issue an ultimatum to a pupil or a class without 
having previously consulted him would have his 
support only if he should judge her action to have 
been justified by the circumstances. Ordinarily 
it is the part of the superintendent to support his 
teachers; but it is also his duty to see that the 
pupils are treated justly. 

Superintendents do not like to have teachers 
"stir up trouble." For very good reason Miss A 
may receive a larger salary increase than Miss B. 
If the latter, on learning this fact, should com- 
plain to other teachers about it, or go to the 
members of the board, she would create an un- 
pleasant situation. Instead, let her go to the 
superintendent. He would know the reasons for 



THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 79 

the action of the board, and could advise her 
wisely. It may be that he would advise her to 
see some of the members of the board — which 
would be quite within her rights. However, she 
should first learn all the facts, and if possible get 
the endorsement or at least the good will of the 
superintendent. Assuredly she should not at- 
tempt or do anything likely to spread dissatis- 
faction throughout the teaching corps. 

An excellent teacher who was an agitator as 
above described applied for a position in a certain 
city. Her practice of criticising the superintend- 
ent and the board was discovered, and she failed 
to receive the appointment. The superintendent 
said of her, **I have no doubt Miss C is a good 
teacher; but if she calls to see me I shall tell her 
frankly that I am afraid of her." 

The superintendent is the court of justice when 
differences arise. In a departmental system, for 
example, questions of procedure arise on which 
there may be honest differences of opinion. There 
can be no compromise. Perhaps two teachers 
favor one course and two the other. The superin- 
tendent must decide. Having declared his deci- 
sion the question should be considered settled. 
The teachers who lose their case should respect 
the decision, and should work on with the same 
fidelity as those who win. It is not necessary 



80 THE TEACHER AND THE SUPERINTENDENT 

that they change their opinions; but it is necessary 
that they carry out the plan decided upon by the 
one in authority. This is part of the "give and 
take" of daily life. Nobody has his own way at 
all times. It is better to have a superintendent 
who decides things, even though he make an 
occasional mistake, than to have one who is un- 
decided or vacillating. 



CHAPTER 9 
REPORTS TO PARENTS 

There are two kinds of reports that should go 
to parents, one at the end of every month, the 
other when some special circumstance in disci- 
pline or study arises. Some school districts fur- 
nish blank cards for regular reports. If so, the 
teacher will use them. But if she has a choice, 
it is suggested that she employ a much simpler 
form than that which is in common use. 

There is much to be said against the marking 
of any pupil on the basis of percentage. First, 
it entails much labor, besides the strain on the 
teacher. Many teachers dread the end of the 
month because of the long hours to be spent in 
complex averaging — necessary to arrive at the 
conclusion, say, that Mary deserves 86 and John 
87 in history! Secondly, the average parent 
seldom studies out what the 87 stands for in the 
mysterious complication of the report card. Some 
consider it good, others poor. The majority care 
little for the card, often signing it mechanically 
with scarcely a thought concerning its message. 
In such cases the teacher's work in marking the 
card has been to no purpose. Thirdly, these cards 
81 



82 REPORTS TO PARENTS 

often stir up strife. If John is marked 87 in his- 
tory and Mary, a neighbor's child, 86, Mary's 
mother "wants to know" why her child has a 
lower mark than John; and is quite likely "to 
opine" that the teacher shows favoritism toward 
John because his father is the mayor of the town 
while Mary's father is only a laborer. 

We all know that no two teachers will award a 
like percentage to a given paper. Indeed, in- 
vestigation has disclosed, in a certain instance, 
that a paper in geometry marked 95 by a high 
school teacher of that subject was marked 55 by 
another teacher; and in other instances equally 
glaring disparities. The percentages on a given 
report card are merely an individual teacher's 
estimate, and arrived at by methods never 
standardized. It were a miracle should two 
teachers, acting independently, award identical 
percentages to the same pupil's card. 

Is it not strange that custom, tradition, and a 
certain slavish conservatism should so control 
school boards and schools, superintendents and 
teachers, the profession and the laity, that they 
seem unable to break away from this cumbersome, 
uncertain, variable, even cryptic system, and re- 
strain them from substituting some simple pro- 
cedure in its stead — some system easy to formu- 
late, and intelligible and informing to parents? 



REPORTS TO PARENTS 83 

Such a plan might be embodied in "A Letter to 
Parents." Some years ago the board of education 
in a certain town supplied the teachers with a form 
letter as follows : 

Letter to Parents 

Blanktown, , 19 . 

Mr, — 



Dear Sir: I am pleased to report that the work 

of your for the month of 

has been satisfactory in all subjects. 



There has been special improvement in 
Remarks : 



Yours very truly. 



Teacher. 



Parent. 



Parents please sign and return. Comments by parents are invited 
and may be written on the back of this sheet. 

If the work of a pupil were unsatisfactory, say 
in history, the teacher would write after the word 
subjects ** except in history." Under *' Remarks" 
the teacher could write many things, such as: 

"John seems to be trying very hard to get his 
history, but he does not seem able to grasp it. I 
shall give him special help this month." 



84 REPORTS TO PARENTS 

"John's behavior is always so good that he sets 
an excellent example to the class." 

"Do you not think Mary is studying too much? 
She seems to be pale and not strong. Her work 
is so good that she could easily get along with 
less home study." 

"I am sorry to say that William is not interested 
in the work in English. He is so careless in his 
spelling and language that he spoils what might 
otherwise be a good paper. Will you not help 
assist him in this part of his work?" 

A report card should not be a complaint card. 
Notice that the form just described emphasizes 
the good points. It trends toward encourage- 
ment. It minimizes the shortcomings. Further, 
every parent will read it and understand it and 
be interested in it. Lastly, the teacher would 
fill it out for each pupil without comparison, ex- 
pressed or implied, to the other pupils. Three- 
fourths of the stress and strain upon the teacher 
herself will be eliminated when the percentage 
report fetich is discarded in favor of some simple 
and rational system. 

These reports, when returned to the teacher, 
should be carefully preserved. If at the end of 
the year a child had not been promoted, and the 
parent had complained about it to the principal 
or to the board, the teacher could justify herself 



REPORTS TO PARENTS 85 

by exhibiting the ten reports showing that many 
times she had called attention to the deficiencies, 
and that the parent, let us suppose, had not ven- 
tured any remarks or offered any suggestions on 
the back of the sheet. The parent, thus shown to 
have been cognizant of the unsatisfactory work, 
without having taken steps to co-operate with the 
teacher, would have difficulty in inducing the 
board to reverse the teacher's decision. 

If one's school board should not furnish these 
blank letters, the teacher may write or mimeo- 
graph them in several abbreviated forms. Prob- 
ably one-half the letters would be something like 
this: "William has done good work throughout 
this month." One-fourth of the letters would 
need perhaps twice as many words. The remain- 
ing fourth would need to be more in detail, and 
should be carefully worded, bearing in mind the 
impression to be made on the child as well as on 
the parent. 

The occasional notes that every teacher has to 
write, as well as those mentioned above, should 
always begin with a favorable statement. Sup- 
pose William's behavior is wretched, and his 
work is very poor except in arithmetic. The 
teacher who feels she must report the state of 
affairs to the home might truthfully begin her 
letter thus; 



86 REPORTS TO PARENTS 

Mr. Blank, Sir: Your son William is the worst 
behaved boy in my room, and the meanest case I 
have ever had to deal with in all my experience. 
He is never satisfied unless he has all the other 
pupils stirred up. He doesn't pay the slightest 
attention to anything I say. His lessons are all 
very poor except one, arithmetic. This conduct 
cannot go on any longer. I am at the end of my 
patience, etc., etc. 

Another, and tactful, way of broaching the 
same matter in a letter might be as follows : 

"Mr. Blank My dear Mr. Blank: I am very 

happy to report to you that William has made a 
most excellent record in arithmetic this month. 
Indeed I can truthfully say that no one in the 
class can equal him when it comes to solving a 
knotty problem. I should think if he keeps on 
progressing in mathematics he might some day 
become a civil engineer. 

When it comes to his other studies, I regret that 
I cannot speak so favorably. He does not take 
much interest in them. This may be due to the 
fact that he is an energetic boy, full of life, but 
not inclined to keep himself quiet. Indeed, his 
activity often has a bad effect on the class; for 
the other pupils are apt to follow his example. 
I have spoken to him several times, but have not 
seen much improvement. I am sure you will 
feel as I do^ that he should try to make a good 



REPORTS TO PARENTS 87 

record in all subjects, so as to be a credit to himself 
and to his family. If he can be induced to apply 
himself more earnestly to his lessons, his conduct 
will naturally correct itself. 

Thanking you in advance for your co-operation, 
I am. 

Yours very truly. 

Now this last letter may be too bland. It 
may be too much of the "soft soap" variety; 
but it is proffered here to show how the same 
thing may be said with totally different results. 
The parent, who would be angered by the first 
letter would doubtless be won over by the very 
beginning of the second. He would feel that the 
teacher was interested in his son, and that her 
letter was dictated by a spirit of helpfulness and 
not of anger. Don't make the letters of complaint 
unduly harsh. Smooth down the rough edges. 
Eschew extravagant statements. Understate 
rather than overstate the shortcomings. 

On or about April 1st the teacher should send 
a letter to all parents of pupils whose promotion 
in June is doubtful. This is in addition to the 
regular monthly letter sent out on that date. 
There are two reasons for this, one to endeavor 
to insure the promotion of the pupil, the other to 
protect the teacher. When such notices are not 
sent out, and the first definite news of failure to 



88 REPORTS TO PARENTS 

secure promotion comes to parents on the last 
day of school, they have ground for saying, "Why 
didn't you let me know a month or two ago that 
my child was in danger of failing in promotion? 
I would then have taken steps to improve his 
work. Now it is too late to do anything." But 
if parents receive a warning on April 1st, both 
they and the child are brought face to face with 
a situation which they alone can remedy; and in 
three months much can be done. Many a pupil 
through such a warning has been led to brace up, 
who otherwise might have failed of promotion. 
The teacher protects herself by this method be- 
cause having given ample warning to both pupil 
and parents she could not justly be charged with 
indifference or neglect. A printed form used for 
this purpose in the school previously cited in this 
chapter was as follows : 

My dear Mr. : I regret to inform you 

that at the present time the promotion of your 

in June is doubtful. 



The subjects in which he lacks are . 

The reasons for this low standing, as far as we 
know, are . 

As there are still three months of school, we 
hope you will do what you can to help us bring 

work up so that he may secure promotion. 

Yours very truly. 



CHAPTER 10 
DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 

A teacher of some years' experience was once 
heard to remark, "If parents will keep away from 
me, I shall be sure to keep away from them." 
This is the attitude of a decreasing number of 
teachers, because we are coming to realize more 
and more that the closer the co-operation between 
parents and teachers the better for the children. 
Parents have not only a right but a duty to call 
on the teacher when things appear to be going 
wrong. If, instead of complaining to the neigh- 
bors about the teacher, parents would first call 
on the teacher and hear the facts about a given 
difficulty much unpleasantness might be avoided. 

It is a good rule for the teacher, whenever pos- 
sible, to call on the parent in case of trouble, 
rather than to wait for the parent to call on her. 
It is preferable that the first account of the diffi- 
culty come to the parent from the lips of the 
teacher rather than from the child. Often this 
cannot readily be accomplished. In that event 
it were best in some instances not to bring things 
to a head with the child but simply to postpone 
the issue until the parent has been interviewed. 



90 DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 

If the teacher succeeds in getting the parent's 
ear in advance of the child the parent will nearly 
always give the teacher a favorable judgment, 
which the child cannot later change by his side 
of the story. 

There are, however, in nearly all communities, 
certain persons whose visits at the schools, to 
register complaints, are notoriously frequent. No 
matter how disagreeable they may be, and how 
flimsy their fault finding, they must be received 
by the teacher, and courteously treated. There 
is no escape, and the main purpose of this 
chapter is to suggest some ways of dealing with 
them. 

The teacher's first rule should be that she must 
not and will not lose her temper. She sees a 
parent coming, perhaps in anger. So much the 
more must she steady herself. "Nothing in the 
world shall cause me to lose my poise," must be 
her resolve. If possible, some interesting topic 
of conversation should be introduced not relating 
to school affairs. People "in a state of mind," 
coming with complaints, have been known to be 
diverted by some item of current news, or even 
by politics or baseball, until they have almost 
forgotten the purpose of their call; and, when 
finally coming to the point, their choler cooled, 
their normal state resumed, they have been known 



DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 91 

actually to commend the teacher for the very 
conditions or actions they came to criticize! 

If this course should prove to be impossible, 
let the teacher cordially say, "What can I do for 
you this morning, Mr. Blank?" Then let Mr. 
Blank give free rein to his feelings. If he becomes 
excited, and you keep cool, you have won the 
day. The longer and the more excitedly he talks 
the more things he will say that are untrue, or 
exaggerated, or discourteous. After he has fully 
expressed himself, you can go back over his state- 
ments and by cross-questioning (always respect- 
fully, but with dignity mingled with good nature) 
show that some remarks were hasty, others based 
doubtless on misinformation, or misunderstand- 
ing, and some possibly deserving of thoughtful 
consideration, with a view, if justified, to inau- 
gurating proper remedies. In many instances 
one can demolish the entire complaint in this 
way. However, it is also wise to bring forward 
evidence of which he has been ignorant, so as to 
shov/ that you have nothing to conceal, and that 
there is ample warrant for what you have done 
in those cases in which you know you have been 
right. You must remember that you are not 
trying to prove your case before a court of justice, 
but V before a person who may be in an unreason- 
able frame of mind, besides being an inter- 



92 DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 

ested party — which renders the task doubly diffi- 
cult. 

Mrs. Poyser, in that famous chapter in "Adam 
Bede" in which she spoke her mind to Squire 
Donnithorne, says, "There's no pleasure in living 
if you're to be corked up forever, and only dribble 
your mind out by the sly, like a leaky barrel." 
To interrupt a man bent on expressing hard feel- 
ings is usually to increase his anger. Let him 
alone until his ardor has somewhat cooled. Not 
the least of the resulting benefits is that he will 
feel "somewhat better after he is through." 

One such parent came to school at one o'clock 
with fire in his eye. He stalked up to the prin- 
cipal and said in a peremptory tone, "I want to 
know why you sent my boy home for making a 
loud noise in his room at noon when he wasn't 
in the room at all." The principal calmly replied, 
"There are two things to be said in reply to your 
request. In the first place, your boy was not sent 
home. He ran home against our wishes because 
he feared he would be punished for striking a boy 
on the playground. As for the loud noise in the 
room, I know nothing about it." The father, of 
course, was completely nonplussed. Then after 
a minute's silence he said, "Wait till I get home! 
I'll show him better than to deceive me like that! " 

As all good rules have exceptions, so this in- 



DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 93 

junction, always to be polite, has its limitations. 
For example, there was a lady who persisted in 
interfering between the teacher and her daughter. 
The latter was inclined to shirk her duties, and 
the mother habitually made excuses for her, justi- 
fied her, and reflected on the teacher. The prin- 
cipal usually had a weekly call from her. If one 
difficulty was adjusted another would be raised 
the following week. One day, when the mother 
asked the teacher why it was that there was al- 
ways trouble between her and her daughter, the 
teacher replied, '*I have no trouble at all with 
your daughter. My trouble is with you. If you 
would only let us alone and cease your interfer- 
ence there would be no further difficulty." The 
mother was highly indignant, and for that reason 
would have nothing more to do with the teacher; 
and, true to the teacher's prediction, she and the 
child got along nicely together thereafter. 

Burke remarks that there comes a time when 
forbearance ceases to be a virtue. There are 
occasions when it is the teacher's right and duty 
to confront chronic complainants with plain facts. 
They are constitutionally awry. No man living 
can please them. They must occasionally be 
"settled off;" and the teacher who does it need 
seldom fear the consequences. In the case above 
referred to, when the incident was recounted in- 



94 DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 

formally to the board of education, the teacher 
was highly praised for her courage. 

In dealing with parents it is highly important 
that the teacher evince a desire to do justice, to 
be fair to all concerned. In considering a com- 
plaint, the teacher's part is not so much to carry 
her point, as to do the right thing. Now il may 
happen that the teacher is partially or wholly in 
the wrong. She should be the first to admit it if 
shown her error, and should hasten to make ap- 
propriate amends. In no better way can she il- 
lustrate the spirit of justice and candor. She 
wishes her pupils to admit their mistakes; and 
she will be wise to set them an example whenever 
the occasion arises. 

In the case of a pupil whose progress in his 
studies is unsatisfactory, a precaution of im- 
portance is to preserve some of the written work 
that shows incompetency. There is no other 
proof equal to written proof. Oral statements 
can be questioned or explained away; but state- 
ments of fact set down in black and white are not 
so readily discounted or distorted or denied. 

Once a gentleman complained to the board of 
education in regard to his daughter. He declared 
that she should be in high school, but that the 
prejudice of her three eighth grade teachers kept 
her from being promoted. A committee of the 



DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 95 

board was appointed to hear the case. The three 
teachers presented to this committee some samples 
of the papers the girl had written in composition, 
spelling, history, geography, and other subjects. 
The committee at once saw the situation clearly. 
Many of her written statements were inaccurate 
or entirely wrong, and much of her language was 
disjointed, almost incoherent. The committee 
promptly dismissed the complaint, informing the 
father that the only doubt in their minds was 
whether the girl should not be placed in the 
seventh grade. 

Another father called at the office one day, not 
in a spirit of complaint, but to learn for himself 
why his son had not been promoted. The prin- 
cipal drew forth the final examination papers and 
showed the very poor spelling and other defects. 
The father was entirely satisfied that no injustice 
had been done to his boy, and furthermore gained 
added confidence in the fairness of the principal. 

As a rule, inquiring parents are entitled to a 
thorough investigation of the matter in hand. If 
their child is not to be promoted, they have a 
right to know the reason why. If the child has 
been punished, his parents have a right to a full 
explanation on request. Nothing is gained by 
concealment, or by a curt disregard of the wishes 
of the parents. The teacher who desires to do 



96 DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PARENTS 

the right thing need hide nothing, nor evade any 
consequence. She may wilUngly throw open all 
records in the case, and explain the ground of her 
action. Even though parents find fault with her 
course, they should not be given grounds to accuse 
her of lack of frankness. 

In order that the school work may run smoothly 
and complaints be discounted in advance, it were 
well that the teacher become acquainted with the 
parents of all her pupils early in the year, before 
any diflficulties have arisen. This requires time 
and effort, but it pays. In one school three eighth 
grade teachers, who under the departmental plan 
each had charge of over one hundred pupils, began 
in the fall to call on the parents of all these pupils. 
The principal excused them from teachers' meet- 
ings and other extra work until the entire round 
of visits had been made. At the end of the year 
the three teachers testified to the great value of 
these early calls on parents. Much misunder- 
standing may be prevented through this ac- 
quaintanceship. Without it no teacher can attain 
her proper status in the community. If an ounce 
of prevention be worth a pound of cure, here is a 
province for its application. A prominent judge 
once remarked that a lawyer's success depends 
largely on the extent of his favorable acquain- 
tanceships. The same statement may with equal 
truth be made of the teacher. 



CHAPTER 11 
THE TEACHER'S TEMPER 

Thomas Carlyle has said, "Blessed is the man 
who has found his work, let him ask no other 
blessedness." One is almost tempted to para- 
phrase Carlyle's sentence and say, "Blessed is the 
man who has a strong temper." 

The man who lacks temper seldom has much 
else. He is an invertebrate. He lacks power, 
poise, ambition. He may be one of the "merely 
good" men, who are "harmless as a dove," and 
without dynamic force. Leaders of men, and even 
active followers, have driving power, which is 
invariably associated with strong temper. Presi- 
dent Eliot said of Alice Freeman Palmer that "she 
had the power of a mighty anger without the 
weakness of an irritable disposition." The temper 
of George Washington is historical. So is that of 
Alexander Hamilton and of Andrew Jackson. 
Strong men and strong women always have strong 
tempers. 

A high school senior was several times sent to 

the principal's office because she had some trouble 

with her teacher. The difficulty was caused by 

the fact that the girl did not like the teacher, and 

97 



98 THE TEACHERS TEMPER 

spoke hastily to her when irritated. The third 
time this girl arrived at the office, the principal 
said to her, "Anna, have you ever thanked God 
for that splendid temper of yours?'* Anna was 
much surprised, and said that her temper was the 
source of all her troubles; that it caused many un- 
fortunate collisions between herself and mother 
as well as her teacher, and that she often wished 
she had as little temper as some of the other girls 
who seemed never to get into difficulties. 

"By no means!'* exclaimed the principal, 
"Your temper is a priceless treasure. It is that 
which accounts for the poise which distinguishes 
you in a crowd. Any one looking at you is at once 
impressed with your apparent strength and pro- 
nounced individuality. You would not like to be 
as spineless as a jelly fish. You would be a woman 
who can do something and be something. Your 
fault is not that you have a strong temper, but 
that you fail to control it. Your temper is like a 
spirited horse that is apt to run wild when the 
master gives it a little rein. It is like a powerful 
engine that can draw a long train bearing hun- 
dreds of passengers at great speed across the con- 
tinent, but can cause calamity when released from 
the control of the engineer. 

"Now I understand perfectly that I am giving 
you a big job, but I have confidence that you are 



TEE TEACHERS TEMPER 99 

equal to it. I wish you to go back to your class 
and from this time on hold your temper in check. 
When you feel yourself becoming irritated, say to 
yourself 'Hold your horses!* and you will by and 
by be able to control your temper so well that 
the collisions with your mother, your teachers, 
and your friends will be a thing of the past." 

Anna seemed greatly impressed, and promised 
to make the attempt. She had no further diffi- 
culty with her teacher. After graduation she took 
a normal school course, taught several years, and 
then established a home. Five years later the 
principal chanced to meet her on a train. The 
conversation turned on the interview above de- 
tailed; and the lady stated that she was glad to 
say that she had entire control of her temper, as 
a happy experience of five years would corrob- 
orate. 

We often hear of a person with a bad temper, 
or with a good temper. Properly speaking the 
words bad and good do not apply to temper. 
There is no moral quality in temper any more 
than there is in the hand or the foot. 

Archbishop Cranmer, when accused of heretical 
teachings, signed a recantation. Later, when 
brought to the stake, he held his right hand into 
the flames, saying, "Let this hand perish first 
because it was guilty of signing that wicke4 



100 TEE TEACHERS TEMPER 

paper.'* Of course Cranmer was entirely wrong 
in attributing guilt to his hand. The right hand 
was no more guilty than the left hand. It was 
no more guilty than the cannon ball that kills 
soldiers in warfare. The instrument is always 
non-moral. It is the mind that is moral or im- 
moral. Thus the temper is strong, medium, or 
weak. "Bad" temper is an incorrect way of 
characterizing a strong temper that is not prop- 
erly controlled. "Good" temper is often nothing 
more than a weak temper. 

The proverbial teacher of a generation ago was 
usually pictured as a man or a woman of an ir- 
ritable, irascible disposition, full of impulses, ec- 
centric, explosive, sarcastic. However unjust this 
characterization, it persisted for many years. 
At one time the English people frightened their 
children into silence by invoking the Black Doug- 
las to visit upon them some dire punishment. 
Later Napoleon Bonaparte was invoked for the 
same purpose, followed in the moor district by 
the reddleman. It is in the memory of many 
people that prior to the school age children were 
told in many homes, "Just wait till you get to 
school. Then you'll have to stand around! Then 
look out for breakers!" Before they began going 
to school some children had as great a dread of the 
teacher as of the bogey man. It is undeniable 



TEE TEACHERS TEMPER 101 

that there were many fearsome teachers. It is 
also true that for the most part they have passed 
with their generation. 

Control of temper is gained through will-power, 
through strenuous and constant practice. If one 
seldom has experiences that invite loss of temper, 
he may be slow to learn control. 

The teacher will always have some pupils who 
are troublesome; she is sure to have trying mo- 
ments with her supervisory oflBcers, fellow- 
teachers, and with parents. There are hourly 
occasions for scolding, fault-finding, sarcasm, in- 
viting outbursts of temper. But equally there 
are opportunities for practice in self-control, 
practice in withholding the harsh word, persistence 
in "counting ten." Teacher, take yourself in 
hand, persistently maintain the attitude that 
every annoying situation affords drill in temper 
control. You will presently gain complete self- 
mastery. Teachers have an almost unique op- 
portunity for growth in self-control, which is the 
progenitor, as it were, of self -development, the 
upbuilder of character, and the sure harbinger of 
success. 

It is well known that when pugilists are con- 
tending for supremacy in the prize ring, the one 
who loses his temper loses the battle. Some 
fighters during the combat continually taunt the 



102 THE TEACHERS TEMPER 

adversary with expressions of scorn, hatred, ridi- 
cule, with the purpose of arousing his anger. This 
accomplished, the wily man may win, even though 
the angry man be the better pugilist. 

With fault-finding parents the teacher must be 
on the alert to discern her rising temper, and reso- 
lute to check it. To lose her temper is to be in- 
stantly at a disadvantage. If the parent is angry, 
the teacher will invariably "win out" by keeping 
cool. When summoned to such an interview, let 
the teacher's resolve be: "No matter what comes, 
I will keep my temper.'* 

An angry father once called at the home of a 
school principal to make a complaint. The lady 
who admitted him to the house gave him a seat 
in the parlor, and went to call the principal. She 
said to the latter quietly, "Be very careful what 
you say to Mr. A. He seems angry enough to 
fight." Now it happened that the principal was 
acquainted with Mr. A, and knew him to be an 
enthusiastic baseball devotee. Hence when he 
entered the parlor he greeted Mr. A in a bluff, 
hearty manner, and said, "Well, what do you 
think of the Giants now.^ Wasn't that a great 
game yesterday?" In a trice they were absorbed 
in the usual baseball conversation. Soon they 
were laughing and slapping their knees as baseball 
Q-necdotes were told. Half a,n hour passed delight- 



TEE TEACHERS TEMPER 103 

fully, when suddenly Mr. A, looking at his watch, 
said, "Oh, I must be going! By the way, I came 
to see you about my daughter. The teacher gave 
her a low mark in arithmetic, and I wanted to 
inquire about it." "All right," said the principal, 
"I don't know about the matter personally, but 
I will look into it immediately, and let you know 
promptly all about it." 

This principal made it a fixed rule to try to give 
satisfaction to every person who came to his oflSce 
with a complaint of any kind. When some one 
called unexpectedly, and seemed to be wrought 
up, the principal often excused himself from the 
office for a few minutes so that he might consider 
how best to take up the matter that he suspected 
would be the burden of the complaint. The few 
minutes of silence also gave the parent time to 
"cool off." Thus the interview began with the 
parent less angry than when he first arrived, and 
with the principal firmly braced for whatever 
might come, determined to administer justice, 
though in a tactful manner; and above all to keep 
himself in poise. Many a difficulty was amicably 
adjusted in that office which, if differently handled, 
might have been the cause of trouble. 

When the teacher loses her temper in the 
schoolroom, she is inevitably unjust. She sees 
fault where there is no fault. She exaggerates a 



104 TEE TEACHERS TEMPER 

slight offense until it becomes enormous in her 
sight, and she punishes accordingly. She is bound 
to do wrong when angry. Counting ten or even a 
hundred will not avail unless she regain control of 
herself. Even then it were far better to postpone 
punishment until the following day. The teacher 
is hardly in condition to see facts and truths 
clearly immediately after she has recovered from 
a fit of anger. Her judgment will still be biased. 
Be sure that the decision as to the proper punish- 
ment wait. In this matter of punishment Aaron 
Burr's rule is most excellent: "Never do to-day 
what you can put off till to-morrow." 



CHAPTER 12 
WHY TEACHERS FAIL 

The better way to learn anything is by positive 
rather than by negative methods. The ten com- 
mandments are for the most part negative; but 
the New Testament says "Thou shalt" instead of 
"Thou shalt not." The teacher's best course is 
to study good methods, visit good schools, affiliate 
with and admire good people. Nevertheless, just 
as there is much to be gained by a study of the 
negative commands of the Old Testament, so 
there are some things especially for teachers, to be 
learned by a consideration of "what not to do." 
By seeing how some one else made a mistake we 
may learn to avoid the same fate. Some teachers 
fail because they do not take school work seriously. 
A young man may decide to become a minister, 
but has little money. Therefore he resorts to 
teaching for a few years, to earn money to go to a 
college; but devotes little time and effort outside 
of school hours to that work. He spends his 
evenings studying, say, church history. His heart 
is in his coming profession, school work is inci- 
dental. 

Now there is nothing specially reprehensible 



106 WHY TEACHERS FAIL 

in teaching school, as a stepping stone to some- 
thing else, provided that one prepare himself 
suitably for the work of teaching and then put 
his heart into it. But short of these two condi- 
tions no one has a moral right to invade this re- 
sponsible profession. It were little less than a 
crime to advance one's self by stepping upon the 
dead enthusiasms and prospects of forty children. 
But even those who go to teaching as a stepping 
stone to something else usually do better work 
than the so-called teachers who have no other 
purpose than to pocket the stipend. The former 
are at least ambitious. They are in earnest in 
one respect, which is better than not to be in 
earnest at all. The latter are failures before they 
begin. 

There is a type of teacher who fails because he 
does not "keep on growing." To stand still in 
the march of progress is relatively to go backward. 
Not to use a muscle is to insure its deterioration. 
"How can we escape if we neglect.'' " is good scien- 
tific as well as religious doctrine. This type of 
teacher neglects the educational paper and the 
book on teaching. He absents himself from the 
summer school and other educational meetings — 
except under compulsion. He leaves the school 
building ten minutes after the pupils, takes a walk 
pr reads the daily paper until supper, and after 



WHY TEACHERS FAIL 107 

supper goes down town to the store or elsewhere 
to pass the time in a way quite divorced from the 
interests of the school. The next morning he is at 
the school at, say, 8:45. He goes through the 
daily program perfunctorily. He "teaches" with 
book in hand. He gives little if any time, even 
in school hours, to preparing the lessons. Has 
he not a legal first grade certificate? To study 
the lessons is to confess ignorance of the subject 
in hand ! Besides, it is for the pupils to study and 
recite; it is for the teacher to ask the questions! 

Are there such teachers nowadays, or is this but 
an imaginary sketch .^^ Ask any superintendent of 
experience and he will tell you that there is more 
truth than fancy in it. Of course the thorough- 
going superintendent will insist that this teacher 
either bestir himself or resign. The children are 
entitled to the services of a live teacher. And, 
one of the most important duties of any superin- 
tendent or board of education is to get rid of in- 
competent teachers. 

Weakness in discipline is perhaps the most 
common cause of failure. Control of the pupils is 
the starting-point, the necessary preliminary, of 
good teaching. Attention, with good order, are 
prerequisites. Inability to control pupils has 
no necessary relation to the teacher's scholar- 
ship. There are those who have made excellent 



108 WHY TEACHERS FAIL 

records at normal school or college, but who do 
not possess the requisite tact and insight into 
human nature. However, both good scholarship, 
keen powers of observation, and a facile speech 
are invaluable because enabling control through 
making the lessons interesting. Indeed, this is 
one of the highest forms of control. Adults as 
well as children will go to any amount of pains 
with work in which their interest is thoroughly 
engaged. Therefore if the attention of the class 
lags, especially that of the older pupils, let the 
teacher so enliven the lessons with interesting in- 
formation as to engage and hold their attention. 
Dr. E. E. White says that Mr. Piatt R. Spencer 
always had, on the instant, the attention of his 
penmanship classes; for the moment Mr. Spencer 
began to write at the board the pupils were almost 
spellbound by his wonderful skill. 

Some teachers fail because they neither like 
children nor enjoy teaching them. Few people 
attain real success in uncongenial work. The 
task which is distasteful is not attacked with 
zest — one has to force one's self to it; and this vir- 
tually precludes the attainment of a high standard 
of accomplishment. Merely to keep the children 
quiet, not through interest but through fear of 
punishment; to secure proficiency in lessons, but 
solely through stern insistence — this is not the 



WHY TEACHERS FAIL 109 

highest type of work. A teacher's success should 
be measured by the interest she awakens, by the 
ambition she arouses, by the progress of the pupils 
toward a noble manhood or womanhood; not by 
the degree of quiet in the classroom or the per- 
centages at the examinations. The discerning 
superintendent will readily discover the difference, 
and will judge the teacher accordingly. 

Teachers who dislike children had better seek 
some other career. If it is not feasible to change 
from teaching, then the teacher should by sheer 
force of will alter her sentiments toward children. 
"There is no situation in life," says Bulwer, 
" which we cannot sweeten or embitter at will. . . . 
If the mind can make one vigorous exertion, it 
can another; the same energy you put forth in 
acquiring knowledge would also enable you to 
baffle misfortune." Our predispositions and pre- 
determinations have much to do with our subse- 
quent likes and dislikes. Unless the teacher can so 
command her innate powers as to put herself 
into the proper attitude toward the children and 
toward her work, she must be willing to suffer 
Mrs. Poyser*s characterization of Donnithorne. 
Mrs. Poyser was not to be dissuaded from declar- 
ing that she had "nothing to say again him, only it 
was a pity he couldna be hatched o'er again an 
hatched different!" 



110 WHY TEACHERS FAIL 

Another cause of failure is, with some teachers, 
their habit of scolding, with sarcasm, and ridicule. 
These three words should be banished from the 
schoolroom vocabulary, and teachers persisting 
in this bad habit should be banished therewith. 
There is no proper place anywhere for sarcasm 
and ridicule, while scolding should be relegated to 
the limbo of the lost arts ! 

Let a teacher once ridicule a pupil before his 
classmates, and it will be doubtful whether she 
can ever wholly win his regard. And if she resorts 
frequently to ridicule and sarcasm she will alienate 
the affections of the entire school, thus making 
success impossible. There are teachers so peren- 
nially fault finding that no pupil pleases them. 
Let the problem be correctly solved — the pupils 
will be criticized for the shape of their figures, or 
for the arrangement of the work. Let everything 
in the lesson for the day be perfect — the teacher 
will exclaim: "Why don't you always do as well 
instead of inflicting upon us the usual miserable 
recitation? '* Corporal punishment is not more 
severe than the unsparing torture of the perpetual 
critic. Are there such teachers .^^ Ask your super- 
intendent. 

Some teachers use poor judgment in the punish- 
ments they choose. For instance, pupil A used a 
pin on pupil B — the latter was sent to the office for 



WHY TEACHERS FAIL 111 

discipline while A grinned impenitently behind 
his book. Another instance: A teacher, this time 
a young man, seriously proposed a rule that should 
a noise occur in the room which the teacher def- 
initely located, he should punish the two pupils 
sitting at the desk whence the noise seemed to 
come, and the eight others at the surrounding 
desks; the argument being that at least two of 
these pupils must be guilty of the offense or have 
guilty knowledge of it, and, punishing the ten, 
no guilty pupil would escape ! There are teachers 
who punish in one pupil what they overlook in 
another. Sometimes forty pupils will be detained 
after school charged with being noisy, although 
twenty of them had been quiet. Ill-judged criti- 
cisms and punishments cause pupils to believe the 
teacher to be unfair; and when once that idea 
obsesses the class, the teacher may as well ask 
to be transferred. In a contest between one 
teacher and forty convinced pupils, the latter 
generally win. 

When we say a teacher fails we imply that she 
is so adjudged by the superintendent or the board 
of education. But are these judgments always 
justified in fact? May not the teacher be right 
and the superintendent wrong? What if the school 
system be antiquated or arbitrary, the standards 
mechanical, the prevailing requirement exalting 



112 WHY TEACHERS FAIL 

the letter rather than the spirit? If a teacher with 
high ideals encounter a system sponsored by 
officials afflicted, so to say, with hardened ideals, 
they may adjudge her failure — because they 
measure by a rusty scale. A certain normal 
graduate began her first year of teaching under 
such auspices. She introduced the new methods 
which she had learned at the normal school. Her 
principal came into the room one day and criti- 
cized these methods. The teacher defended her- 
self by saying that she was only applying what 
she had learned at the normal school, and that 
she believed them to be sound. In an intolerant 
manner he asked, "How many years have you 
taught?" "I have not taught at all before this, 
as you well know; but these are methods taught 
and advocated by the normal school, and adopted 
by the best schools in the State." Said the prin- 
cipal, " My dear young lady, I have taught twenty 
years; and I tell you that the methods you use 
are impossible." 

After that, whenever the teacher ventured to 
justify any methods to which the principal ob- 
jected, the latter would always look at her with 
a knowing smile and say, "How many years have 
you taught?" This teacher, though discredited 
in that town, obtained later another charge where 
progressive ideas were in vogue, and where she 



WHY TEACHERS FAIL 113 

was a conspicuously successful teacher for ten 
years. Neither Shakespeare nor any other philos- 
opher has attempted to demonstrate the proposi- 
tion that long experience as a fool predicates a 
wise man; and the principal who has deliberately 
repelled new ideas for twenty years must not 
expect to be rated as up-to-date by competent 
authorities. "Prove all things but hold fast to 
that which is old," has not yet superseded "hold 
fast to that which is good.'* 

Thus have been specified a number of causes of 
failure among teachers. A study of these and all 
other causes would probably lead us to these few 
general conclusions: 

1 No teacher should expect to succeed whose 
heart is not in her work. 

2 Love for children is a condition essential to 
the highest success in teaching. 

3 Good judgment, tact, and firmness along 
with keen observation and proper training, and 
enthusiasm, are necessary to successful control of 
human beings of whatever age. 

4 When a teacher finds herself in a non-pro- 
gressive school system, her best course, if the 
system is not to be changed, is to change her 
position as soon as she honorably can. 



CHAPTER 13 
GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

Not long ago the principal of an eight-room 
school said to his superintendent, '*I have been 
in my present position three years; and while I 
am much pleased with it, and the people are very 
kind to me, I deem it proper to take a step in ad- 
vance. Yet I have been so immersed in my work 
here that I have not so far had the time to look 
around for something better." 

"You have pursued the right course," replied 
the superintendent. "It was your responsibihty 
to make a success of this position; now it is my 
responsibility to see that you are properly re- 
warded." One year later this principal was 
elected to a desirable principalship in a large city 
through the recommendation of his superin- 
tendent. 

At about the same time a young normal school 
graduate accepted a position to teach a remote 
rural school. At the end of her first term the 
superintendent asked her, " Where do you expect 
to teach next year?" Her reply was, "I should 
like nothing better than to go back to my little 
school for another year." 
114 



GETTING A BETTER POSITION 115 

"A worthy choice," said the superintendent. 
"And I promise that you shall not be retarded 
in your professional career as a result of it. If 
your work the coming year is as good as I have 
every reason to expect, I shall do my best to get 
you into one of the best cities in this State next 
spring." At the proper time her name was 
handed to the superintendent of that city. He 
visited her school and engaged her on the spot at 
an advanced salary. 

These two instances are cited to show that al- 
though good teaching, like virtue, is its own re- 
ward, it will also win incidental compensations. 
The surest way to gain a higher position is to do 
superior work in the present one. Superintendents 
and supervisors are asked every year to recom- 
mend teachers for choice positions. They go over 
their list and select those who have earned the 
right to promotion; and in every case the worthy 
ones are those who have faithfully and ably done 
their work however remote and obscure the school. 
Those who have shown little interest and enthusi- 
asm and a lack of ambition, who have the narrow 
view that the teacher's work is but a temporary 
shift, are rightly passed by. It is the "growing" 
teachers who are in demand. 

However, not all superintendents are so gen- 
erous, or shall we say conscientious? There have 



116 GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

been superintendents who, if a teacher, especially 
in a remote school, had done good work, would 
selfishly conceal the fact from the officials of other 
places; and would keep the teacher in ignorance 
of any openings of which they had learned. They 
would argue that as it is to the interest of that 
remote school to keep a good teacher once she 
has been found, her departure wouM be detri- 
mental to the school, to the pupils, and to the 
community. 

These superintendents were presumably teach- 
ers themselves at one time, some in modest if not 
remote schools at first. Also, presumably they 
were successful teachers^ Why did they not re- 
main in their early positions? Why injure the 
school and the community by abandoning them 
to the chances of an incompetent successor? If 
their superintendent had knowledge of a higher 
op>ening and kept the information from them, did 
they not deem themselves shabbily treated? But 
if their promotion, when it came, did come through 
the recommendation of their superintendent were 
they hesitant about departing, were they unappre- 
ciative, or were they duly grateful to him? Did 
they consider him disloyal to the remote little 
school and its community? Or did they, with him, 
hold the broader view that not only is the pro- 
gressive teacher entitled to progress, but also that 



GETTING A BETTER POSITION 117 

the very needs of the larger community entitle it 
to the services of the growing teachers, and to 
draw on the smaller communities to obtain them? 
This practice of keeping good teachers year after 
year by deliberately concealing their merits is a 
short-sighted policy. The teachers will become 
discouraged. "No matter how hard I try, my 
superintendent does nothing for me," will be their 
plaint. "He is ready enough to accept advance- 
ment himself, but he is willing that my life shall 
be spent here, to the detriment of some other 
community in which I believe I can accomplish 
greater good to all concerned, including myself! 
What's the use!" 

On the other hand, if a superintendent is known 
to take a personal interest in the welfare and ad- 
vancement of his teachers, he will have the choice 
among ambitious and aspiring candidates eager 
to put themselves under his jurisdiction; and in 
due time his corps will be largely composed of 
eager, enthusiastic, progressive workers, all of 
them capable of high grade results because of the 
very knowledge that he will appreciate their 
efforts not only in words but by appropriate deeds. 
That sort of superintendent will fill the more de- 
sirable vacancies under his supervision from the 
ranks of his own teachers, so far as possible, and 
will not detail to outsiders the best positions. 



118 GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

thus closing them to his own faithful co- 
workers. 

Again, however willing a superintendent may 
be to advance the interests of his teachers, there 
nevertheless will be occasions when one must 
strike out for herself, seek new openings, and try 
for them, taking proper measures to make her ap- 
plication successful. There is nothing censurable 
in this when the circumstances are proper. Some 
positions come unsought; but in the majority of 
cases the opportunity does not "knock at the 
door; " one must go out and seek it. 

It has already been said that good work in one's 
present position is the best recommendation for 
another. This secures the favorable verdict of 
one's superintendent and local school board. 
Without such endorsement, advancement is ex- 
ceedingly difficult. Few boards of education will 
elect a teacher who is unable to show a record of 
success, either as student or as teacher. 

Then there is the question of the personal inter- 
view versus the written application. Upon learn- 
ing of a vacancy for which you wish to apply, the 
best course is to make an appointment to call on 
the superintendent. It is not wise to call without 
an appointment. The superintendent may not 
be at home, or he may be too busy at the time to 
receive you. Once the appointment has been 



GETTING A BETTER POSITION 119 

made, keep it punctually. To fail to keep it, or 
even to be tardy, will create an unfavorable 
opinion of you — so unfavorable as even to bias 
the judgment of your interlocutor. That little 
evidence of unbusinesslike character may be the 
grain that will swing the scale against you. 

In one case an applicant for a principalship 
telephoned (long distance) at 2 :30 o'clock at night 
to the chairman of the teachers' committee in 
order to get some information regarding the posi- 
tion. The chairman said at the next meeting of 
the board, "Under no circumstances will I vote 
for that man. A man so lacking in judgment as 
to put in his application at 2:30 A. M. is not the 
sort of man that we require for this position." 
And the application was not considered by the 
board. 

It were wise to take to the interview a formal 
letter of application, together with a letter of 
introduction or recommendation from the super- 
intendent with whom you have been teaching. 
If there was also a principal, a letter from him 
would carry weight. However, in lieu of com- 
mendatory letters, if unavailable, "references" 
are usually considered nearly as satisfactory, as 
the. persons referred to are generally consulted in 
writing when the superintendent is making his 
investigation. 



120 GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

The purpose of the superintendent in granting 
you the interview is to "look you over" so as to 
appraise your personality. He wants to "size you 
up " as to character and qualifications — ability to 
teach, demeanor, appearance, agreeable address, 
and command of language. If you commit several 
grammatical errors while speaking, you may be 
sure that you will not be accepted. To have 
quarreled with your principal or to have been at 
odds with the board will imperil your case. If 
you state as a reason for wanting to change posi- 
tions the fact, say, that you have been working 
in a benighted community in which no teacher 
could get fair treatment, you will fare badly in 
the competition. Discontented, dissatisfied, quer- 
ulous candidates need not apply! You may say 
that you wish to change for the sake of the broader 
field, the better opportunities to move upwards; 
and you may confess a liking for the larger salary; 
but it is not necessary to detail the disagreeable 
aspects of your present position. Dwell rather on 
the pleasant side. All positions have their 
troubles. Superintendents prefer optimists to 
pessimists on their teaching staff. 

The applicant's statements during the inter- 
view should be brief and to the point — not so brief 
as to give the impression of diffidence or timidity. 
There have been candidates who talked so volubly 



GETTING A BETTER POSITION 121 

that the interview was a monologue, the superin- 
tendent having scarcely a chance to ask a question 
or inject a comment! On the other hand, there 
have been applicants whom the superintendent 
could not prevail upon to talk, and would answer 
only in monosyllables the questions asked. Ca- 
pable teachers are presumed to know how to say 
all that is necessary without talking too much or 
too little. Yet this does not imply that the super- 
intendent would not have you talk. He cannot 
estimate your worth unless you reveal your per- 
sonality through speech. 

This interview concluded, you will be guided as 
to further procedure by the superintendent's 
advice. He may suggest that you see some mem- 
bers of the board of education. He may wish you 
to get additional letters of recommendation — 
perhaps one from your normal school principal. 
Usually there should not be more than three or 
four letters, all from school officials or educators. 
Letters from private individuals such as clergy- 
men, lawyers, and business men should be es- 
chewed. They may do more harm than good. 
Such friends are interested in your personal ad- 
vancement while the superintendent will wish to 
know what kind of teacher you are, and only 
school people can give him trustworthy informa- 
tion on that point. 



122 GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

As a sequel to the personal interview a visit 
by the superintendent need not surprise you. 
Your school and grounds are always neat, your 
lessons well planned and prepared, your black- 
boards in good order, you are becomingly dressed 
(not elaborately), so that it is not necessary for 
you to make any special preparation in anticipa- 
tion of his coming. He would probably drop in 
unannounced. 

After a very short greeting, go on with the work 
according to schedule. Do not at once change 
your program and call out your star classes. Give 
the visitor a copy of your program, and if he wishes 
to see any class out of its regular order he will tell 
you. If you happen to be having tests or other 
written work when he calls, then of course you 
will at once offer to teach any classes he may wish 
to hear. 

It is a mistake to try too hard to impress your 
visitor with your ability or with the proficiency of 
your pupils. You will best serve your candidacy 
by conducting the school and teaching the classes 
just as if he were not in the room. Be your natural 
self. That is what he came to see. If he wishes to 
see anything special, he will ask you for it. 

After all, perhaps some one else will get the 
position! It may possibly be that the superin- 
tendent has found a teacher who, in his judgment, 



GETTING A BETTER POSITION 123 

is better fitted for that special work than you! 
In that case take your disappointment bravely. 
Write to the superintendent that you are glad 
he has found so good a teacher, and that perhaps 
on some other occasion he may again give your 
name consideration. It may be that you have 
applied for other positions, and have failed in 
every case. Do not be cast down. Return to 
your old position determined that the coming 
year shall be the best you have ever lived. You 
will be more sympathetic with the children, more 
affable to the community, more alert for new 
ideas in pedagogy, more sedulous in your own 
culture. You will take systematic measures to 
improve your physique. Then next year you will 
again make applications, with added experience 
and growth to your credit. You are the more 
likely to succeed in your quest. But if you do 
not, never become bitter. Let ** each new temple " 
be "nobler than the last.'* By and by you will 
be "free!" 

Failure to secure a new position is not always 
a misfortune. It is often a blessing. One princi- 
pal, who had applied for a new position, stood 
second on the list, and so was not elected. Though 
disappointed, he was not disheartened. Six 
months later he applied elsewhere, and again 
stood second. Still he was not discouraged, but 



124 GETTING A BETTER POSITION 

applied at a third place. Here he was elected, 
but the salary was reduced so that he could not 
afford to accept. Then like a bolt from the clear 
sky came an offer, unsolicited, which was much 
better than any of the three he had missed. Five 
years later he again applied for a higher position. 
Once more he received the customary information 
that he had stood second. But three months 
afterwards he was again chosen to a better position 
than that he had just missed. Election to any 
of the four positions he did not secure would have 
been to his disadvantage, even though he had 
been successful in the work. First class positions 
are seldom to be had at the outset; and it is better 
,to wait a year or two for a position in a good sys- 
tem of schools than to go at once into a second 
rate system in which promotion may be slow, 
and from which it may be difficult to advance to 
something better. 

Life has discouragements for all; and the true 
teacher, as every other real man or woman, will 
bear disappointments with equanimity. Colonel 
Francis W. Parker was elected to his last position 
at the age of sixty-six. All his life he was eager, 
alert, progressive, always on the lookout for the 
greatest opportunity for usefulness. When one 
ceases to aspire, he has reached the dead-line. 



CHAPTER 14 
VACATIONS 

One of the great blessings a teacher enjoys is a 
long vacation period. While the majority of 
workers in other fields are compelled to be at busi- 
ness three hundred days in the year, the teacher 
is on regular duty less than two hundred. She 
therefore has unusual opportunities and privileges. 

It is well that the teacher works at the school 
so few hours per week, and so few weeks per year. 
One who has had no experience in teaching can- 
not appreciate the wear and tear on the nerves 
that is inevitable in high-grade teaching. The 
teacher who can say at the end of a school day 
that she feels as fresh as when she began in the 
morning is not of the first rank. She would not 
have given herself to the pupils. Tired muscles 
can be rested in a night; but not so, tired nerves. 

The duty of the teacher during the vacation 
period is both to rest the nerves and to build up 
the physical power. She must not only repair 
the ravages of the past year, but store up a surplus 
of energy for the year to come. The latter is ac- 
complished better by intelligent and systematic 
work in physical culture than by mere rustication. 
125 



126 VACATIONS 

It were well to become familiar with one of the 
several good systems of training the body. Dur- 
ing the vacation she will have ample time to carry 
out the exercises regularly. For instance, one 
teacher took up exercises in breathing. The time 
required was five minutes each morning and five 
in the evening. In three weeks she increased her 
chest expansion two inches. This brought with 
it improved circulation and digestion. These 
exercises were worth more to her than hours of 
walking would have been if without proper 
breathing. 

If the teacher has defects in her bodily frame, 
such as swayback, projecting head, round shoul- 
ders, stiff back, the vacation period is the very 
time to cure the defect by means of appropriate 
daily exercise. Walking should be on the pro- 
gram, and plenty of it, rain or shine, care being 
taken to avoid excessive fatigue. There should 
be wholesome food and much sleep. Some teachers 
during vacation err in staying up late — to enjoy 
social activities. These should be judiciously and 
firmly subordinated to the higher purposes of the 
vacation period, namely, the gaining of physical, 
mental, and moral improvement. 

As the body gains much from appropriate exer- 
cises, so the mind is strengthened by worthy read- 
ing and conversation. Too often the subjects 



VACATIONS 127 

discussed at summer boarding houses are of a 
frivolous or at least an unimportant order. If 
the mind dwells on the small affairs of the day, 
it gets no stimulus, no inspiration. To fritter 
away the time is to gain nothing, not even re- 
laxation. About as much mental energy is re- 
quired to speculate on the petty acts of the va- 
rious people one meets at a summer hotel as to 
dwell on fine characters in fiction, or to converse 
with the equally fine people one may select for 
acquaintanceship. The teacher should always be 
alert to meet worthy associates and to fill the 
mind with uplifting thoughts. The indulgence in 
chit-chat and light reading may as well be "rele- 
gated to the occasional." 

The teacher should be familiar with more than 
one of the masterpieces of literature. The vaca- 
tion period is the very opportunity needed for 
continuous reading. During the school year so 
many other things claim attention that it may 
take a month to finish a book. Under these con- 
ditions it is not possible to gain so clear an im- 
pression of a serious book as it is when the reading 
covers a period of but a few days. It has been 
said that the four fine gentlemen in English fiction 
are Sir Roger de Coverley, the Vicar of Wakefield, 
Henry Esmond, and Colonel Newcomb. Here is 
an excellent program of reading for one summer 



128 VACATIONS 

or part of a summer. Intimate companionship 
with these four men cannot help but have an up- 
lifting influence on the reader. Besides, it is a 
reflection on the scholarship and taste of a person 
presumably educated, not to be familiar with 
these great characters. George Eliot may be 
taken up. The "Scenes from Clerical Life" may 
be called her most spontaneous sketches. Also, 
"Silas Marner," "Adam Bede," and "Middle- 
march" should be read. Unless the reader be 
especially fond of George Eliot, she need not read 
the rest of her works, for the life message of the 
author is comprehended in the books mentioned 
above. 

The teacher will, of course, not neglect great 
poetry. Some day she will read "Paradise Lost'* 
from beginning to end at a few sittings. Then 
she will probably wish to read the "Paradise Re- 
gained" and "Comus." This is great poetry. 
The soul is thrilled by some of the fine passages: 

"So dear to heaven is saintly chastity, 
That when a soul is found sincerely so, 
A thousand liveried angels lackey her." 

"Scylla wept, 
And chid her barking waves into attention. 
And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause." 



VACATIONS 129 

"High on his throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind, 
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat." 

The teacher who will memorize these and other 
passages will lay up in her mind rich treasures 
that will be hers to enjoy forever. 

History and biography form an exhaustless 
field for stimulating reading. Several volumes of 
John Fiske, for instance, will give a picture of 
periods in the history of our country written in 
a style as interesting as that of Dickens or Thack- 
eray. The lives of such fine women as Frances E. 
Willard, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Clara Barton, 
Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, and Alice Freeman Palmer 
should be read by all teachers, not only because 
they can be used in school but because of their 
influence on the teacher's own personal life. 

The field of essays should not be neglected. 
Every few months some book, embodying the 
thoughts of a strong man or woman, comes from 
the press. Such a book is worth reading. Dr. 
Cabot's "What Men Live by," Henderson's 
"Children of Good Fortune," Hyde's "From 
Epicurus to Christ,'! Gulick's "Mind and Work" 
and "The Efficient Life," are the sort of books that 
enlarge one's views on life and duty. 



130 VACATIONS 

The program thus far suggested in this chapter 
is likely to impress some readers as perhaps too 
heavy. That may be so in some circumstances. 
For example, one's health may not, for a time, 
be equal to it — but that should be true only for a 
time. Otherwise, the program should not be too 
heavy for the person of character, seriously bent 
on success. Besides, no one can become really a 
good teacher who is not imbued with the deep 
purpose to serve humanity; and to that end one 
will employ both physical and mental resources, 
as well as available time. The teacher who would 
not prefer Colonel Newcomb, say, or Dinah 
Morris, to the "Girl of Broadway" or the "Man 
of Mystery"; or the literature accepted as sub- 
stantial, to the admittedly ephemeral, had better 
look to her character. Let every worker, re- 
turning from vacation, return a nobler, bigger 
character by virtue of a sensible observance of a 
sensible program. 

George Meredith, in "Diana of the Crossways,*' 
remarks : 

"Every form of labor, even this flimsiest, as you 
esteem it, should minister to growth. If in any 
branch of us we fail in growth, there is, you are 
aware, an unfailing aboriginal democratic old mon- 
ster that waits to pull us down; certainly the 
branch, possibly the tree; and for the welfare of Life 



VACATIONS 131 

we fall. ... Especially be wary of the disrelish of 
brainstuff. You must feed on something. Matter 
that is not nourishing to brains can help to con- 
stitute nothing but the bodies which are pitched 
on rubbish heaps. Brainstuff is not lean stuff; 
the brainstuff of fiction is internal history, and to 
suppose it dull is the profoundest of errors." 

What is suggested here of companionship in 
books is of course just as true of companionship 
with real people. Vacation supplies two oppor- 
tunities, that of solitude and that of society; and 
as for the latter, there are often several grades 
from which to select. 

It was said that Simpkins' dog could not bear 
to be loose, and howled when he was tied up. 
There are some people who cannot bear to be 
alone even for a short period. If they have not 
the excitement of conversation they languish in 
drab discontent. That argues the shallow mind; 
for he who has "taken to his own" the fine char- 
acters of literature, who has adopted the high 
ideals of life and service, who has habituated him- 
self to service — to doing good, he will welcome and 
contentedly embrace the very opportunities — 
often too few, alas — of uninvaded seclusion. It 
was said of Milton that he deemed his blindness a 
blessing in one respect because it compelled him 
to seek the society of his own thoughts. 



132 VACATIONS 

During vacation time, wJien the mind is rested, 
when there is freedom from the calls of daily life, 
and especially when the mind has been engaged in 
high thinking or with noble characters, it becomes 
creative. New ideals spring up — new aims and 
purposes. One becomes imbued afresh with the 
dignity of life, the grandeur of achievement, the 
joy of nobility. One feels above "the cares that 
infest the day," and determines to live on a higher 
plane. Solitude so often furnishes the occasion 
for this, and also the wherewithal; and there is no 
time equal to the vacation period to embrace and 
enjoy its peculiar benefits. 

The best companionship, in vacation time, 
aside from books is the companionship of congenial 
souls who also look upon life in a spirit of earnest- 
ness. This by no means excludes the jest, the 
repartee, and other good fun. But it does mean 
that there is little place for mere silliness and 
inanity — frivolous conversation and garrulous 
discussion. With such people fun is of a high 
order — full of spice and relish, stimulating, or 
even resting, the mind. 

If it were possible to take down a day's con- 
versation in some groups at summer hotels and 
analyze it, there would be found a very small 
amount of wheat, in contrast with the large quan- 
tity of chaff. This dwelling on the sordid, or the 



VACATIONS 133 

vainly frivolous side of life, as Meredith intimates, 
spells deterioration. From a vacation spent in 
this kind of society one returns dissatisfied, petu- 
lant, looking for trouble, taking offense when none 
is meant, and showing an altogether disagreeable 
disposition — baneful penalty of shallow thinking 
and careless living. 

Compare with this the vacation spent in a 
small community in Maine one summer. There 
were about one hundred people, housed in camp- 
meeting grounds. There were classes and lectures 
as well as entertainments. One prominent minis- 
ter gave a lecture each day on the Bible as viewed 
from the standpoint of the higher criticism. 
Questions and discussions were invited. One of 
the most eminent preachers and editors in the 
country gave four addresses. A university pro- 
fessor read Browning's "Saul," Riley's poems, 
and a lecture on "Mother Goose." A teacher of 
music in a conservatory gave violin recitals. The 
great Wulf Fries played the violincello. When 
these men were disengaged they gathered in 
groups and conversed on the questions of the day. 
Think what it meant to listen to or participate in 
this social intercourse. To sit for an hour in a 
swing listening to questions of one of the foremost 
men of the day was a liberal education. Four 
weeks of such association transformed the thinly- 



134 VACATIONS 

ing and the liviDg of some of the students. Any- 
one who has enjoyed such a privilege afterwards 
can hardly possess his soul in patience when 
thrown into the company of those whose conver- 
sation begins and ends in nothing. 

Truly, the vacation period assumes an impor- 
tance for the teacher that is not always recognized. 
It may be passed in mere physical and mental 
diversion, or it may be spent in physical and 
mental development. It may broaden the teacher 
through worthy reading and companionship, or it 
may contract her ideas and ideals by unworthy 
and frivolous associations. Give careful fore- 
thought to the vacations. 



CHAPTER 15 
SUMMER SCHOOLS 

How many public school teachers salve their 
conscience by hugging the fact that they have 
secured certificates showing their qualification for 
teaching. Those who have life certificates may 
assure themselves that they have abundant evi- 
dence of their competency to teach. Why there- 
fore worry to take courses at a summer school? 
Why study at all.^ 

To many readers that would seem a weak con- 
clusion. Indeed, we all know that even the best 
teacher can become better and still better; that 
there is no limit to the possibilities of professional 
improvement. Yet the foregoing argument was 
seriously set forth some time ago, in an editorial of 
a prominent daily paper. Not to attempt to con- 
trovert so futile a pronouncement, suflSce it to 
say that if teachers in service made no attempt 
to improve themselves the schools would become 
less and less efficient. It is said that Michael 
Angelo's motto when an old man was, "Still I am 
learning." Every proper-minded teacher will 
adopt the same motto. She will continue ever 
in the attitude of an eager learner. 
135 



136 SUMMER SCHOOLS 

The summer vacation affords ample time for 
attendance at a summer school. The question 
now is, does that pay? Is it worth while? Judg- 
ing from the verdict of those who have taken 
summer courses the answers are in the affirmative. 
And judging from the courses offered and the 
strong staff of instructors at nearly all summer 
schools the affirmative answer may be convinc- 
ingly affirmed. 

There are ofttimes reasons why teachers should 
attend a summer school at a certain place; but if 
the teacher is free to choose, it would seem wise to 
bear in mind several considerations: First, the 
summer school should combine study with rest 
and recreation. Two regular courses are suffi- 
cient for any one. There will then be opportunity 
for reading, social intercourse, physical exercise 
(not omitting walking), and genuine resting — 
complete relaxation for the unduly fatigued, with 
abundance of sleep. Secondly, it were well to 
venture different localities: one summer at the 
seashore, another in the mountains east, west, 
south, north! A delightful tour every summer 
on the way to and from, but more important the 
pleasure and profit of meeting the people of dif- 
ferent sections of the country and observing their 
varying environments. In Maine one will find a 
different type of American from that found in 



SUMMER SCHOOLS 137 

Virginia. Acquaintanceships and friendships are 
certain to be formed, leading to correspondence 
and visitation. One will also learn of the educa- 
tional conditions in the various sections of the 
country. In other words, there is no better way 
of becoming broadminded than by mingling with 
people of varying types and dispositions, and no 
way of learning to understand conditions better 
than by actually seeing things for one's self. 

Too many summer school students undertake 
so much that at the end of each day they are ex- 
hausted. They return to their homes or schools 
depleted in body and in mind. This seems an 
improvident policy. True, there may be many 
courses that one would long to take; but one's 
best welfare demands that when the strength is to 
be conserved, interest, ambition, enthusiasm, all 
are to be held in leash. Too much of even the 
best things is unwholesome. "Enough may be 
too much." The end of the session should exhibit 
a body of teachers built up in physique, with 
mental vigor keen yet unimpaired and with en- 
thusiasm not waning but waxing. 

The work at the summer school should not all 
be professional. One subject, such as psychology, 
or school management, or methods of teaching, is 
enough of that character. The other subject 
should be cultural. If a course in poetry, fiction, 



138 SUMMER SCHOOLS 

or essays is given, it were well to take it; or a 
course in nature study, or in some phase of man- 
ual training may prove congenial. Educators 
now believe all these courses are to be approached 
in a broadly cultural sense. There are often 
special addresses and lectures. These should be 
attended if possible. It is interesting, by hearing 
people of prominence, to gain first hand impres- 
sions of them. 

The late Superintendent William N. Barringer, 
of Newark, when a young man, determined to 
hear prominent speakers. He heard Lincoln's 
famous speech. He had a pew in the church of 
Henry Ward Beecher, and saw him sell slaves 
from the pulpit. Any one who ever had the 
privilege of sitting beside Dr. Barringer, hearing 
his reminiscences of these and other great men, 
will carry the memory of him and of them through 
life, and always to advantage. 

The value of courses at a summer school con- 
sists not so much in the amount of information 
gained as in the new points of view and new in- 
spiration. Those whose routine work year by 
year knows little variation, and who do not go 
out in search of new ideas, will cease to progress. 

Much is heard these days of industrial work in 
school — manual activities, the practical arts. If 
a teacher has been so unfortunate as to know little 



SUMMER SCHOOLS 139 

of this movement, let her go to a summer school 
in which this work is featured. There she will 
learn the meaning and purpose of these activities. 
She will be astonished that she should have been 
teaching for several years and not have appre- 
ciated their value; and she will return to her own 
school stimulated by the new modes of doing and 
thinking, to improve greatly the quality of her 
teaching. 

Similarly, a course in the teaching of reading in 
the schools may disclose the serious fact that one 
may not have been efficient in this work, may 
not have brought out the really vital points in the 
reading lessons, may have insisted too much on 
the letter to the neglect of the spirit. The in- 
structor will open one's eyes to the beauties of 
literature — result: new ideas, growth, pleasure, 
better teaching. 

There is still another value which accrues from 
serious work at summer school — it often leads to 
an increased salary or to a higher position or both. 
At summer schools one meets superintendents 
who are always in search of good teachers. The 
instructors are glad to recommend the promising 
students. Attendance at the summer school is in 
itself testimony that the teacher is progressive; 
and not infrequently one's local board will add to 
the salaries of those who have evidenced their 



140 SUMMER SCHOOLS 

ambition by devotiDg their leisure to and by in- 
curring the expense of such attendance. While, 
therefore, the teacher goes to summer school ex- 
pressly to increase her skill and power, it is not 
unlikely to follow that in addition she will also 
gain the material reward that is a just recognition 
of her attempts at improvement. 



CHAPTER 16 

THE TEACHER'S SATURDAYS AND 
SUNDAYS 

The good teacher will have put so much of life 
and energy into the work of the five school days 
of the week that on Saturday and Sunday she 
will need a change. These two days are her little 
vacation, to which many of the suggestions in the 
chapter on "Vacations" apply. The question 
before us is how best to use the two days. Shall 
they be spent in idleness, or shall they be full days, 
but with change of activity .^^ Which will be the 
better investment? 

An increasing number of teachers undertake 
Saturday courses at colleges and other institu- 
tions — an excellent plan provided overwork is 
avoided. To give the entire Saturday to these 
courses, with the time and effort necessary to 
preparation, is unwise except for persons of un- 
usual endurance. Overwork is exhausting to a 
degree; and some teachers pursue the Saturday 
courses so breathlessly, the greater part of the 
time, as to become "driven." They get "nerves," 
and lose their health, which, when decHning, is 

141 



142 THE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 

freshness sapped and power spent. Excessive 
work may become a positive evil. 

Saturday study moderately pursued is whole- 
some and bracing. Inspiration is gained — from 
the professor in charge, from the classmates, and 
from the books. New and broader fields of in- 
terest are explored. The trip to the college is in 
itself a little excursion out from the monotony of 
the week into one cannot predict what enliven- 
ments. 

The growing teacher will also attend some of 
the Saturday gatherings of teachers. Ordinarily 
teachers' meetings should not be held on Satur- 
day; but it is not possible to have all the various 
meetings — state, sectional, and county — on school 
days. The teacher cannot afford to consider 
herseK detached from her co-workers in the profes- 
sion. Those who keep aloof are injuring them- 
selves, besides depriving others of the encourage- 
ment of their presence. To become acquainted 
with the teachers in one's neighborhood, to imbibe 
their ideas and to impart one's own, is not only a 
pleasure but should be a duty to the profession. 
If all teachers refrained from fellowship and co- 
operation, the profession would suffer much. 

Local meetings in which the teacher actively 
participates are of great advantage to every par- 
ticipant. Moreover they, also, sometimes lead to 



TEE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 143 

advancement. A teacher of Latin in a small, 
remote high school, once read a paper on that 
subject before the State High School Teachers* 
Association. Within the following week she re- 
ceived three offers of positions from superintend- 
ents who had heard her paper; and in a few months 
she was installed in an excellent high school at an 
increased salary. 

A young man once gave a talk before a county 
teachers' association. In the audience was a citi- 
zen of the town. He was so much pleased that he 
secured the young man's election to the board of 
education, and two years later was instrumental 
in having him elected principal of the local 
schools. 

Good teachers are not uniformly fortunate in 
their advancement, they may be overlooked by 
those in search of teachers. If these same 
teachers were to appear oftener in public, and 
were to impart to their presence an active instead 
of a passive role, their abilities would become more 
manifest, and they would be "in the running" to 
secure the promotion to which their merits entitle 
them. When flowers "blush unseen," no one is 
to blame if they "waste their fragrance." 

To speak and act in public is of direct help in 
the teacher's work, both as a stimulant and as an 
exercise in self-confidence. The teacher who gives 



144 THE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 

a talk on Saturday will go to school on Monday 
with enthusiasm notably enhanced. She will be 
keen for work and will teach with power. She 
has taken an intellectual tonic that will arouse 
energies hitherto dormant. The teacher who 
gives a talk gains more benefit, possibly, than she 
bestows. 

It would seem, therefore, that the good teacher 
will devote her five teaching days to the direct 
work of the classroom, and her Saturdays to her 
own development in a professional way; this, of 
course, reacting on the classroom. 

How shall a teacher spend the Sunday? Ac- 
cording to her conscience, some would say. But 
that should not preclude an intelligent choice 
based on reflection, and exercised with discretion. 
It is not only a legitimate but a very pertinent 
practice for the teacher to consider what is her 
wisest course on Sundays, both as an individual 
and as a teacher. 

Two young school principals were once teaching 
in districts about twenty miles apart, one in a sea- 
shore city, the other inland. One day they com- 
pared notes as to their Sundays. The latter de- 
scribed his activities on that day as follows: "At 
ten o'clock I go to church services, where I sing 
in the choir. At 11:30 we have Sunday School, 
in which I teach a class of twenty-five young 



THE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 145 

ladies and play for the singing. At one o'clock we 
have dinner. At three I go to an Italian mission 
and drill the congregation in singing. At six- 
thirty we have a men's league meeting in the 
church, at which I play the organ and lead the 
singing. At 7:30 I again participate in the church 
services. Besides, we have choir practice every 
Saturday evening." 

"How do you feel when Sunday is over?" asked 
his friend. 

"Tired out," was the reply. "I must say that 
no day in the week is as hard on me as Sunday." 

"I pursue a totally different course," said the 
friend. "I go to church once on Sunday, but I 
do not sing in the choir, neither do I ever attend 
Sunday School. On the contrary I spend the rest 
of the day quietly reading, or filling my lungs with 
the ozone on the boardwalk. I contend that I 
can do more good to the children in my school by 
freshening up mind and body on Sunday than I 
could by participating in a large number of church 
activities with their inevitable drain on my ener- 
gies." 

President William DeWitt Hyde, of Bowdoin 
College, himself a clergyman, in an address to 
teachers, urged this latter course. " Go to church 
once on Sunday," he said in substance, "but 
never stay for Sunday School. If you do, you 



146 THE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 

are bound to carry your week-day work into the 
Sabbath. You must get away from teaching." 

The teacher who is imbued with the right spirit 
gives herself and spends herself for her pupils five 
days in the week. This is a drain on her physical 
and spiritual resources that makes frequent vaca- 
tions a necessity. She is in close touch with her 
pupils at least thirty hours per week; and to sup- 
ply forty children for thirty hours with encourage- 
ment and other stimuli is enough to exhaust the 
energies of any person. Two days out of seven 
away from school and its routine, giving thought 
to one's own upbuilding, is the best program for 
the teacher and for her pupils. One teacher 
cannot furnish stimulus to the whole world. 
Something must be left for others to do. She 
who attempts too much is liable to lose all. 

Teachers are so valuable in Sunday School, that 
they are eagerly sought after. Often the teachers 
are the best educated and the most capable minds 
in the Sunday School. They know how to control 
pupils, teach them effectively, and conduct the 
program intelligently. There is no question as to 
their value and acceptability in the Sunday 
School. The theorem propounded is that in one 
year the teacher will do more good in the world 
by teaching five days per week than by teaching 
six. 



TEE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 147 

In rural communities, however, it is believed 
that the foregoing rule should be abrogated. The 
good teacher of a rural school must, in the nature 
of things, be a community worker. She must 
participate in the life of the people, mingling with 
them and assisting in their activities. For her to 
hold aloof from the doings which fill so large a 
part of the lives of the country folk as those of 
the Sunday School is not only to lose an oppor- 
tunity but to weaken her hold on their good will. 
But the five school days of the rural teacher are 
by no means so wearing as those of her city sister. 
The former is usually installed in a building with 
but one floor, with fine air, with only twenty 
pupils, and in freedom; while the latter may be 
compelled to climb to a fourth floor, with factory 
smoke and noises continually perceptible; with 
fifty pupils, and working under the high pressure 
of close supervision. The rural school teacher 
will never faint because she is compelled to con- 
duct her pupils from the fifth floor to the street 
and back again five time in one day in the fire 
drill rehearsal. Hence the teacher in the country, 
free from the stress and strain of her city sister, 
may well accomplish in some lines the things 
which for the city teacher would be unwise to 
undertake. 

There must be some hours between Friday 



148 TEE TEACHERS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS 

evening and Monday morning during which the 
good teacher should strive to put herself "in tune 
with the infinite." This may best be done by 
filling the mind with great thoughts from the 
Bible, from poetry, or prose, or nature. Nothing 
so lifts the whole life as a noble thought. The 
more anyone dwells in the companionship of wis- 
dom and inspiration the more will he become 
wise and inspired. 



CHAPTER 17 
READING THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL 

Every morning in practically every school in 
the land principals and teachers read selections 
from the Bible. It may be worth while to con- 
sider the purposes of this reading, and how it may 
be most effectively done. 

One of the purposes is to establish its pre- 
eminence as THE BOOK. Pupils are thus 
brought to regard it as occupying a unique yet 
universal position. Such recognition gives it a 
dignity and impressiveness that are of great im- 
portance in its influence on the minds of the 
children. Another purpose is to teach the chil- 
dren the lessons and the truths which the Bible 
contains. Nothing equals this Book for training 
in ideals and character. The more freely the 
children imbibe the spirit of the Bible, the better 
will be our citizenship in the future. 

If a principal or a teacher reads the Bible to his 
pupils merely because such practice has the sanc- 
tion of custom or of law, if he does not endeavor 
to impress its lessons on his pupils through his 
reading, the exercise will be purely formal and 
mechanical, and will "fall flat," lacking vitality. 

149 



150 READING THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL 

In maDy schools, and in many pulpits, the Scrip- 
tures are read so mechanically and monotonously 
that one might suspect the reader of a distaste 
for his task, as if it were uninteresting, or even 
disagreeable, to be got through with perfunctorily 
and then dismissed from his mind. A teacher who 
will prepare a geography lesson with much fore- 
thought and skill will often venture a Scripture 
lesson without preparation, and with results 
wholly negligible. He forgets to apply his peda- 
gogy; indeed, the thought may never have oc- 
curred to him that pedagogy may be applicable 
to this exercise. 

The great harm done by a perfunctory reading 
of the Bible in school is not only that its lessons 
are lost but the attitude of the teacher becomes 
the attitude of the pupils, so that they soon feel 
that Scripture reading is equally perfunctory a 
procedure. It is quite possible that the lack of 
interest in the Bible on the part of many adults is 
owing to this very training. They have sat so 
long under formal Scripture reading in school 
and in church that the Book itself seems to them 
to be merely formal. Its influence for practical 
good is thus much lessened. 

Properly managed the Scripture exercise can be 
made vital. It can be made interesting to the 
pupils, and its truths can be set forth in a manner 



READING THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL 151 

so forceful as to fix an indelible impression on 
their minds. Of course, it is presumed that the 
teacher must confine himself to the reading — 
without comments, that being generally a legal 
requirement. 

The teacher should select her readings wisely. 
In the lower grades the simple stories and psalms 
are the most appropriate. Even in the high 
school some of the argumentative discourses of 
the apostles are not as suitable as other parts of 
the Bible. It does little good to read selections 
that pupils cannot understand, and there is a 
positive danger here as has already been suggested. 

Having chosen a suitable chapter, the teacher 
should carefully read each paragraph to herself, 
in advance, and study how its meaning may best 
be rendered — which words should be emphasized, 
how to pronounce them, where to pause, and the 
tone to be used. Then the teacher should read 
clearly, as he would a secular selection, and as 
naturally as possible, yet in such a way as to 
maintain the dignity of the subject. 

It is probable that some readers of this chapter 
have heard Professor S. H. Clark, of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, read the Scriptures at Chautau- 
qua, N. Y., or elsewhere. Professor Clark uses 
no gestures when reading the Scriptures. All his 
effects are gained through the other elements of 



152 READING TEE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL 

expression. He preserves perfectly the dignity 
of the subject. But when one has heard him 
read the story of Joseph, or the story of Absalom, 
or a parable, he feels that the Scriptures have 
taken on a new significance. The characters por- 
trayed seem real. He changes one's whole attitude 
toward the Bible. People have been heard to say, 
"After hearing Professor Clark read the Scriptures 
I don't care to listen to any more of the service; 
he has made such an impression^ that I want 
nothing more just now.** 

Having made a suitable selectionTand having 
read it expressively, the most important thing 
has not yet been accomplished. It remains for 
the spirit of the Bible to be made the spirit of 
the school — for the teacher to exemplify in his 
life the teachings he has read. How much good 
do you suppose a teacher accomplishes who reads 
the parable of the prodigal son, while denying the 
prodigals in his own school! Or if he reads that 
"he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that 
taketh a city,'* and forthwith loses his temper in 
the schoolroom? Or if he reads "Be kindly af- 
fectioned one toward another, in brotherly love,*' 
but is devoid of sympathy with his pupils? A 
teacher had better not read the Scriptures in 
school than proclaim their great truths, only to 
contradict them by his character and actions. 



READING TEE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL 153 

To do that would be to teach that Scripture is 
to be read regularly, but not to be lived up to — 
that there is no necessary connection between 
hearing and doing. If this does not produce 
atheists, it at least has a tendency to develop in- 
differentists, who are but little better. What we 
need in the schoolroom are "living epistles," as 
well as Scriptural epistles. 



Seeley's New School Management 

By Levi Seeley, Ph. />., Professor of The Science and 

Art of Education^ in the New Jersey State Normal 

School, Author of ''''Elementary Pedagogy" 

*' Teaching: lis Aims and Methods,'' Etc. 



This book Is chiefly intended for students in normal 
schools and training classes, and for young teachers who 
have been unable to avail themselves of the privileges of 
a course in a professional school, but who are compelled 
to prepare themselves independently for the work of 
teaching. It is a sane treatise based upon sound peda- 
gogical principles — an inspiration to the ambitious 
teacher. 

One of the best teachers* professional books on the 
market, it has been remarkably successful in normal 
schools, teachers' training classes, reading circles, etc., 
in all parts of the country. It has been adopted for 
teachers* reading in many States, among them Idaho,' 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Okla- 
homa, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas. After 
having been used for five years in all of the Kansas 
High Schools having a Normal Training Course this 
book has just been readopted by the Kansas School 
Book Commission for another term of five years. What 
better recommendation can we offer? No teacher should 
be without a copy in his library. 



Seeley's Teaching: Its Aims and Methods 

By 
Professor Levi Seeley, Trenton State Normal School 



Dr. Seeley's new book gives the opinion of a promi- 
nent educator of long experience on the latest educa- 
tional questions of timely interest. His handling of our 
troublesome school problem should be of interest to 
every parent as well as to every progressive teacher. 
Dr. Seeley believes that education is the most interest- 
ing study in the world and he inspires his readers with 
the same belief. 

The language and style are simple, clear and free 
from technical terms; the thought is definite and con- 
clusive and every page contains fascinating as well as 
valuable material. The mechanical arrangement of the 
book is intended to aid the reader in fixing and remem- 
bering the subject matter. It is suitable for classes in 
Normal and Training Schools. It is admirably adapted 
to Reading Circles and Teachers' Clubs. 

Some Educational Problems Treated in This Book 

Waste in American Education 

How Can Teachers Keep Progressive ? 

The Duty of the School Towards Public Health 

Shall We Give Temperance Instruction ? 

How Shall We Treat Defective Children ? 

What Shall We Teach in Arithmetic ? 

Training Girls in the Household Arts 

Are We Securing Efficiency in Education ? 

Normal Instruction in Our Schools 



Vocational Education receives adequate attention. 
Pre vocational, Continuation, Vocational and Part Time 
Schools are considered in the light of their claims and 
demerits. 



Complete Class Record Book 



For term of twenty weeks. Large enough to register 
ten classes of twenty-eight students each. 



At last there has been devised by John J. Quinn, 
Ph. B., the most complete and convenient class record 
book ever published. The pages are arranged and 
ruled in such a way that the teacher can keep a 
complete record of the written work, recitations and 
attendance in classes during a term of twenty weeks 
without being obliged to rewrite the pupils' names. 

Opposite the name of each student is a column 
in which to indicate the page of the school ledger 
on which he is registered and, (for use in states 
where the free text-book system exists) a column for 
recording the number of the text-book and its condition 
when received and returned. 

A column for recording any kind of written work 
each week, adjoins the column for registering the daily 
attendance. Following these are columns to keep a 
full record of the attendance and absences, others for 
the monthly averages and the term averages. Adjacent 
to these are columns for term examinations and de- 
linquent examinations, each being subheaded to indicate 
the student's standing and the fact that he passed or 
failed. For the delinquent examinations there is an 
additional subheading to record the date. Two column? 
are provided for teachers who may wish to keep some 
special records. The next to the last column is for the 
final average and in the last column can be inserted 
some mark to show that the whole record has been 
posted or recorded. 

^ The book with space provided for all this inform- 
ation is of a size that can be easily carried in the pocket 
and is large enough to register ten classes. Durably 
bound in cloth, price 55 cents. 

The publishers will be glad to send a sample copy 
to any Principal or Superintendent of Schools for in- 
spection with a view to adoption. 



HELPS FOR TEACHERS 

COMPRISING BOOKS ON METHODS OF TEACHING, 

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT, PSYCHOLOGY, PEDAGOGY, 

QUESTION AND ANSWER BOOKS 



Teaching: Its Aims and Methods (Seeley) . . .$1.40 

A New School Management (Seeley) 1.40 

Elementary Pedagogy (Seeley) 1.40 

The Foundations of Education (Seeley) 1.25 

Instruction in the Grades (Gerson) 1.40 

Visualized History of Education (Tucker) 2.25 

A New Psychology (Gordy) 1.40 

A Broader Elementary Education (Gordy) 1.40 

Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching 1.15 

Public School Relationships (Sogard) 1.15 

Best Methods of Teaching Gymnastics (W. G. 
Anderson, Director Yale Univ. Gymnasium) 1.35 

Smith's New Class Register 55 

Quinn's Complete Class Record Book 55 

Lind's Best Methods of Teaching in Country 

Schools 1.35 

Lind's 200 Lessons Outlined, in Arith., Geog., 

English Gram., U. S. Hist., and Physiology . . 1.35 
Craig's Common School Question Book, with 

Answers 1.65 

Henry's High School Question Book, with Ans. 1.65 
Sherrill's Normal Question Book, with Answers 1.65 
The Progressive Series of Question and Answer 
Books (Price) : Algebra, Arithmetic, Book- 
keeping, Grammar, Amer. Hist, Physiology, 
Spelling, Stenography, Typewriting, etc., each .45 
The 1001 Questions and Answers Book, each .55 



